Geo-Force
by A-LionGleek
Summary: Things get crazy difficult for the Titans when a not entirely welcome face from their past makes an unexpected return. Their lives get crazier still when a visiting Aqualad brings news of a far more literally earthshaking problem that Titans East is facing. However, could a horrifying connection between these two elements make this whole mess even worse then it already is?
1. Prologue

**Hey there everybody! I hope you guys are all ready for yet more Teen Titan-ic awesomeness, because here is the newest 'episode' of A-Liongleek's season 6 of Teen Titans. And boy will this one be a real earthshaker! Needless to say, here's to hoping you all enjoy, read, and review!**

 **But first, I shall remind you that I do not own Teen Titans, or the DC Universe period. Now that that's out of the way, feast your eyes, on the prologue for the new epic story, Geo-Force!**

 **Prologue:**

It was a beautiful day at Jump City Beach on the 1st day of August in the year 2017. The children were having the time of their lives playing around in the sand, splashing in the water, or likewise enjoying themselves in the midst of the two weeks or so they had left before their summer vacation came to an end. The middle school and high school aged citizens were also enjoying themselves, but a bunch of them in a more relaxed and less exuberant way compared to their much younger counterparts. And as for the adults, the majority of them were relaxing in their respective spots on the beach (some of them even sleeping) while a small number were in the water with the kids and teenagers. All in all, all the civilians at the beach were all having a pretty good day.

However, the mass number of civilians present were not the only natives of Jump City present at the beach. Five other guests at the beach at that particular moment, two of which were seated on foldable beach chairs, two of which were sitting on towels, and the fifth of which was lying down on his belly on a third towel, were of a considerably higher status. They were the five heroes of the city. They were, the Teen Titans.

"It is certainly a glorious day is it not?" Starfire asked, her green eyes agleam as she stared in calm happiness at the happy scene that lay before her at the beach.

"You could say that," said Robin, his own face showing his own signs of happiness in spite of the fact that his eyes were still covered, as usual, by his black and white domino mask. He then smiled as he looked in the same direction that his girlfriend was looking. "It's certainly nice that we got to have a good little bit of piece today."

"You got that right," Beast Boy agreed, his fangs showing in a toothy grin and his green eyes dazzling with joy as he continued to lie down on his beach towel with his chin on top of his hands like a cat. "Of course, things haven't been 100% peaceful and crime-free over the last few days. But hey, at least things haven't ever yet gotten as bad as they did during our little adventure two months ago."

Robin grimaced upon hearing that last bit. "Please don't remind me about that right now, I'm trying to relax and enjoy myself here."

At the sound of this, Beast Boy grimaced guiltily, directed an apologetic look towards his fearless leader, and stated, "Oh right, sorry about that."

"It's ok," said Robin. He then shook his head to clear his thoughts of the very real jeopardy he was at risk of facing in another 17 months from the current point in time. Allowing his earlier happy smile to come back on his face, he leaned back in the chair he was using, placing his hands together behind his head (his heavily gelled up spiky black hair serving as a nice shelter for them as well), and said, "Let's just enjoy ourselves and relax just like originally planned."

"You do realize that we can't keep putting off that matter and taking part in this break we've agreed upon forever you know," said Raven, her violet purple eyes directing a stern and serious look towards the teenage caped crusader.

"I understand Raven," Robin admitted patiently. He turned his head to look at the gray skinned sorceress "But for now, let's just keep resting and enjoying ourselves while we still can. It's not often we get chances like this to have a break from our duties as heroes, and whenever we do have them, I believe it's best that we take as much advantage of them as possible. Counting today, I've still got 17 months, plus one day, to wait before my due date comes. And if we still haven't ended our little break by the beginning of this September, then I promise that I will make it _mandatory_ for you guys to get back to work on your little side project." He got himself back into his earlier relaxed position, sighed in content, and continued, "But for now, just relax. Everything's perfectly fine right now, and there's no need for us to make things stressful for ourselves when they don't have to be."

Raven raised her eyebrow at the Boy Wonder. "If you say so," she eventually grumbled before turning her head away from Robin to once again direct what appeared to be a rather disinterested look towards the ocean. A slight breeze then kicked up, sending her dark lilac purple hair blowing around gracefully to her right. At the sight of this, Beast Boy unobtrusively directed a look towards her. For a long time now, he had unconsciously found himself directing a considerable amount of attention towards the teenage Azarathian sorceress. This behavior had only increased after a very unusual incident two months prior to now that he'd begun to gain more and more memories of over the past month. When this behavior had first began long ago, he hadn't entirely thought it was all that big of a deal. But after everything that had now happened, plus the details he was starting to remember about the incident he was thinking about from the Dante's Keys adventure, he was starting to wonder whether or not the nature behind his current actions were of a far stronger nature then he'd originally thought.

A few seconds later, Beast Boy was spared from his current thoughts when he heard a familiar voice say, "Well regardless of how soon or late we get back to that little problem, I'm all for enjoying this little mini-vacation we're having!"

Beast Boy chuckled, turned his head to face Cyborg with a toothy grin on his face, and said, "Join the club dude."

The bionic teenager chuckled, directed his gaze back towards the ocean and sun, and gave a thumbs up towards the sky before saying, "Yep, I'm totally enjoying things today! And boy I hope that those beach boys not too far from our right our willing to let an additional guest join in their party, cuz I'm totally hoping to get to taste some of that barbecue they're cooking!"

As he said the last bit, Cyborg turned his head to his right to take a look at the 'party' in question. He licked his lips hungrily as he watched the one boy in the group that was hard at work at the grill. Cyborg nearly even ended up drooling as he caught a whiff of the meat cooking up on the grill and thought about how very tasty it would probably be if he got the chance to eat some of it.

Robin chuckled, turned his head to look in the same direction as Cyborg, and then gave a thumbs up to his bionic friend before then saying, "Well if those guys let you join them, I'm all for letting you have a taste of that barbecue."

"Yes friend Cyborg," said Starfire, her long red hair billowing in the wind much like Raven's had been earlier. "If granted, the opportunity shall be all yours."

"Whatever," Raven droned without even turning her head to look.

"Well thank you all for that," said Cyborg. "I'm all for going there to ask in the next few minutes. And for that matter . . ." He turned to Beast Boy. "You're free to join them with me if you want BB."

Beast Boy pulled a face, sticking his tongue out in disgust, and then directed an annoyed glare at Cyborg before saying, "Cy, have you ever once said yes to any of my offers for you to try my tofu or join me at the local Vegetarian/Vegan friendly joint?"

"No."

"Then what reason would you have to expect that I'd say yes to _this_ offer of yours for me to eat meat?"

"Wasn't really," Cyborg admitted with a chuckle. "Just taking part in the usual ritual."

"Grr," Beast Boy grumbled. "It's all yours dude. I'd rather die again then eat that stuff."

Robin silently grimaced upon hearing the word 'again,' but he otherwise maintained his composure.

"Understood," said Cyborg, completely unphased by his green friend's choice of words. He stood up from his beach towel. "Well, I'll be heading over there right now. Be back in a few or two." After receiving silent acknowledgement from Robin, Cyborg proceeded to calmly make his way over to the beach boys with their mini-party and cooking barbecue, whistling happily to himself as he went.

At the sight of his friend whistling as he walked over to the beach boys' barbecue party, Beast Boy chuckled, swiftly ran his left fingers through his chartreuse green blonde hair, and stated, "Sure is nice to see Cy enjoying himself."

"You've got that right Beast Boy," Robin agreed. "He's certainly earned the right to have a little fun with some of the local fans."

"Indeed," Starfire stated in agreement with her boyfriend before directing a look towards Raven. "What about you friend Raven? Do you not agree?"

Raven thought to herself, and then shrugged. "You could say I do agree, in a sense," Raven responded; and then she directed a small smile towards her three friends still present there directly beside her.

"Good to know," Beast Boy stated with a cheeky smile directed towards Raven before he turned his head to face the ocean, stretched his arms and hands much like the way a cat would do, even letting out a lion-like yawn in the process, before lying back down once more, sighing in content as he redirected his gaze towards the ocean. The other Titans, likewise feeling relaxed and content, didn't even bother trying to feel annoyed at Beast Boy's more animalistic behavior that he'd recently displayed at that moment. They were just feeling that happy.

. . . . .

At the same time that all the Titans were busy enjoying themselves, one civilian in particular was directing her gaze towards them a couple yards or so away from the beach boys that Cyborg was currently chumming around with. As she carefully watched the five teenage heroes, and in particular, the green-skinned, haired, and eyed, boy with the purple and black jump suit lying around on his belly on a beach towel, she found herself feeling a mixture of sentimentality, relief, and guilt. She was feeling sentimental about how the way they were currently acting reminded her a lot about past experiences in which she'd hung out with her friends. She was feeling relief that neither of the teenage heroes, particularly the green shape shifter, had managed to even notice her presence at the beach. And finally, she was feeling guilty as to how she was forcing these five people she'd once viewed as very close friends to both stay in the dark about her whereabouts as well as (again in the case of the green shape shifter) just how much more she remembered and knew then she let on.

The girl sighed, placed her chin on her left palm as she continued to stare in the direction of the five teenage super heroes, her blue eyes seeming to glaze over with regret. Admittedly, it would have been far more painful than she was sure she was willing to attempt to bear to openly let them meet her and become aware of her entire situation, let alone her continued existence considering what had happened the last time they knew for sure that they had seen her. And that being said, she had more or less done the right thing by allowing herself and them to avoid potentially unnecessary pain, drama, and stress. Then again, and she sighed once more, at the same time, in treating this situation the way she was currently treating it, she knew that she was only running from her troubles and potentially delaying the inevitable. Granted, she was always able to put on a good show for her friends at the school she was attending as well as the people at the small diner she worked at to get money to pay her rent as well as multiple other payments. But whenever she was at her apartment where she lived on her own, she always felt the entirety of her dilemma haunt her and pile on her like crazy. And she wasn't sure how much longer she could handle all the stress she was placing on herself in regard to this problem without either breaking and telling someone or going completely insane.

Then she heard a mass screaming coming from all around her, and she groaned silently to herself as she turned her head to see the cause of all the commotion among all the girls in the group she was hanging out with. She was currently in the midst of a friendly outing with a large group of her gal pals from the local high school she was attending, the school in question being Murakami High. As it turned out, the reason behind the quite fangirlish screaming from her peers was the sight of fellow Murakami High Student, as well as the school's local heartthrob, Jackson Carver.

Under other circumstances, she had to admit that she would probably be right there with her peers in the way they were acting. After all, she had to admit that Jackson certainly was attractive. He had brown hair styled in a low ponytail that always seemed to effortlessly billow around in the wind, onyx black eyes that at times seemed to be able to look straight through to your very soul, and he was also surprisingly muscular and fit for someone as slender in build as he was. All this, combined with the fact that Jackson was both a talented athlete and a dedicated scholar made him a very desirable piece of eye candy for the majority of the girls at Murakami High (keyword being 'majority'). In fact, she herself was the only girl who wasn't affected by Jackson's Fabio aura, a factor that left all of her peers among Murakami High's female student population perplexed and speechless with shock.

At that particular moment, Jackson was preparing himself to go out in the water to do some surfing. And as he stood there holding his lightning bolt patterned surf board, his eyes gleaming with a passionate spark as he gazed towards the water in anticipation, she found herself silently giving points to the boy. After all, there was truly no better way to make yourself happy then to do what you loved, and the only times that Jackson Carver ever had that look he currently had in his eyes were times in which he was either doing, or about to do, one of the many activities that he enjoyed. Seconds later, with a spirited inarticulate yell of enthusiasm, Jackson dashed over to the water, seeming to teleport into position on his surfboard upon reaching the water before then paddling exuberantly out to catch some waves.

As the 16-year old girl watched the free-spirited teenage boy paddling out into the ocean on his surfboard, she found herself unconsciously thinking of her life from before the one she currently led. For some odd reason, she found the way that Jackson was moving oddly familiar, as if she had once seen or maybe even personally known someone in her past life who swam in a very similar manner.

Deciding that she'd rather avoid thinking about that kind of thing for the moment, she looked to her left in time to see one particularly good friend of hers staring dreamily out in Jackson's direction and expressing her thoughts about him in a surprisingly more silent way than all the others in their group. The girl couldn't help but smirk wolfishly, for this girl, named Stephany Troy, had a major-league huge crush on Jackson, and could always be seen acting super shy, stuttering, and blushing like a tomato around him. In fact, the dynamic that had managed to come between herself, Stephany, and Jackson had come to remind her rather unhealthily of the very similar dynamic that had once existed between Sakura, Hinata, and Naruto (respectively) in the earlier segments of the Naruto series. She then sighed to herself as she thought of this, and found herself hoping very much that either Stephanie would one day develop the guts needed to confess to Jackson or that Jackson himself would come to find himself reciprocating her feelings for her and making the job easier. After all, she was really starting to get both impatient with how long Stephanie was keeping herself perpetually dancing around the matter and annoyed with how her own repeated rejections of Jackson's attempts at asking her out still hadn't stopped him from trying at every opportunity he got at school.

Deciding that she needed to have a break from her school-life drama, she looked back at the Titans. Sighing again as she found her mind drifting back to her equally stressful memories regarding them, she stared down at some sand lying nearby her beach towel, her blue eyes misting over as she remembered how she would have once been able to cause a Sahara Desert worthy sandstorm right here in this beach. But that had been another life. And now, she was reduced to hiding herself, maintaining lies, and likewise running away from the life she'd once known and still refused to face to this day.

Sighing yet again, the girl rubbed her fingers through her shoulder-length golden yellow blonde hair. "I used to be so much braver then this," the girl thought to herself. "What happened to turn me into such a coward these days?" However, little did she know that her past life would soon force her to face it and resume it, whether she liked it or not.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, back at the area where the four younger members of the five founding Titans were lounging, Beast Boy heard a voice from his right ask, "Want to play?"

The changeling turned his head, and smiled widely as he saw a young boy standing right next to him holding a beach ball out eagerly as if asking him to play with him. "Sure," Beast Boy responded with a chuckle before turning himself around so that he could properly face the boy. No sooner had he positioned himself on all fours so that he was staring straight at the boy, he turned into a California sea lion, clapped his front flippers together, and barked happily in anticipation.

Giggling at the sight of the joyful green sea mammal, the boy tossed the beach ball towards it. The sea lion tapped it upwards with its snout, and proceeded to bounce it up and down upon his snout repeatedly the way seals and sea lions were stereotypically believed to act in circuses. The boy only giggled further at the sight. The sea lion made what appeared to be a sea lion equivalent of a smile before slapping the ball playfully back towards the boy with a swing of his right front flipper. The boy happily caught it, threw it back, and then the game was officially on.

Before long, with several other kids joining in, a quite lively game of catch soon unfolded with each kid who managed to catch the ball eagerly throwing it with their hands while Beast Boy the sea lion continuously either tapped at the ball with his front flippers, sent it flying with swings of his back flippers, or bounced it on his nose multiple times before bopping it right back at a randomly chosen child among the group he was playing with. Robin and Starfire smiled warmly at the sight, and even Raven had a slight smile, though hers was more wistful and slightly regretful. She had never gotten the chance to play with any other children during her childhood.

Eventually, Beast Boy brought the game to a decisive end by first seeming to catch the ball with his right front flipper before slapping it back and forth between his two front flippers. Then he started to juggle the ball while standing on only his hind flippers. Then he bounced the ball on his nose a couple more times. Then he bopped it hard enough to send it flying over the kids. Then, for a grand finale, he leaped over the kids, landed right behind them, and then turned his head to look behind him before lifting up his hind flippers just in time to catch the ball. The six children he'd been playing with, three of them boys and the other three being girls, cheered in pure childish glee at the sight of this dazzling performance.

Beast Boy smiled, handed the ball back to the boy who'd initiated the game in the first place, morphed back to human form, and then turned around to face the children properly. Smiling, he then stated, "Wasn't that fun?"

"Yes!" the six children replied joyfully.

"Awesome!" Beast Boy yelled before leaning down so that he was closer to the children's level, his arms stretched out wide to his sides.

The children, very easily getting the message promptly gathered around him and hugged him. Beast Boy returned the gesture, making sure his arms encompassed all six of the kids, chuckling happily with his eyes closed as he did so.

Robin and Starfire couldn't help but smile at the sight of this. "He sure is good with kids," said Robin.

"Indeed," Starfire agreed. "I do believe he would make the most excellent father if he ever had any kids." She then turned her head to look at Raven with a sly grin on her face as she thought of how she'd unobtrusively managed to catch onto Beast Boy and Raven's subtle behaviors around each other. "Wouldn't you agree friend Raven?"

Raven turned her head towards Starfire, her impassive face showing no sign of the slight worry she felt inside about whether or not Starfire knew more than Beast Boy or herself thought. "Well I'd have to be blind not to understand that after seeing his current behavior with those six kids," Raven stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

Starfire, much to Raven's dread, only chuckled. "Are you sure that is all you have to say on that?"

Raven raised her eyebrow, desperate to maintain her composure. "And what might you mean by that?"

"I do believe you already know," Starfire responded.

Meanwhile, Beast Boy had just finished hugging the six kids he'd played with when he noticed a seventh kid, a young bespectacled blonde boy joylessly poking at a small sand castle with a stick. Concerned, Beast Boy slowly made his way over to the boy, and then sat down right next to the boy. The boy looked at him with a half annoyed and half melancholy look on his face. "Hey there," said Beast Boy. "Is something wrong?"

The little boy sighed, looked down at his lap, and responded glumly, "My parents. They aren't here."

"Oh," said Beast Boy. "Well that shouldn't be too bad. I mean, they'll probably come back to check on you sooner or later . . ."

"No they won't," the boy interrupted with a hint of bitterness in his voice. "Because they're dead. They died last week in a plane coming home from a vacation in Hawaii."

"Oh," Beast Boy responded, now feeling guilty at how nonchalant he'd originally been acting about the boy's original comment. He then placed his hand on the boy's shoulder in an impulsive act of empathy. "May I ask how old you are?"

"Seven," the boy responded before he even got the chance to wonder about the sudden apparent change of subject.

Beast Boy nodded, directed his gaze towards the sun with a wistful look of sadness on his own face, and then said, "Well my parents died when I was young to. I was eight at the time."

The younger boy's eyes widened. "Really?"

Beast Boy nodded his head glumly, his eyes closed.

"Wow," the civilian boy stated, he then directed his eyes towards his left, his face clearly showing how awkward he felt about listening to what Beast Boy had just said.

"I'll bet you miss them don't you?"

The boy sighed. "Yeah," he replied. Then he looked at Beast Boy. "You?"

Beast Boy sighed, closed his eyes, and hung his head towards his lap. "More than I can say. More than I can say."

Robin, Starfire, and Raven were gaping in shock as they watched and heard what was happening. Never before had Beast Boy ever mentioned anything about this to them. Even Cyborg was watching in stunned silence. The six kids Beast Boy had played with, meanwhile, were also gaping towards Beast Boy and the other kid with looks that ranged from stunned shock, to saddened sympathy, and even awkward embarrassment.

"So who takes care of you now?" Beast Boy asked.

The boy pointed at a tall blonde man sitting next to and chatting with a ginger-haired woman that appeared to be his wife. "My aunt and uncle. I was staying with them already while my parents were on their vacation."

"Huh," Beast Boy stated as he looked towards the couple. "I was raised by my own uncle for a time." Then he looked back at the boy. "Are they nice people?"

The boy nodded his head, a small smile now on his face. "You can bet on your life they are." Then he thought to himself. "What about your uncle?"

At this, Beast Boy sighed. "Sadly, no."

"Oh," said the little boy. "How bad was he?"

Beast Boy chuckled nervously, directed a nervous half smile and half grimace towards the kid, and then responded, "You don't want to know."

The boy raised his eyebrow at first, but then thought to himself, and nodded in understanding. "I guess you're probably right," he admitted.

Robin and the two girl Titans found themselves awkwardly looking each other in the eyes. In just those last few minutes in which they'd observed and listened to him in the midst of his chat with this kid, they had learned far more about Beast Boy then they had ever before learned about him over the course of the almost five or so years they had lived alongside him. Even Cyborg found himself awkwardly looking away over his shoulder. This particular motion ended up prompting one of the beach boys that Cyborg was hanging out with to take over the grill when the barbecue ended up at risk of burning due to Cyborg's being distracted.

Beast Boy then sighed, directed a weak smile towards the younger civilian boy, and stated, "But hey, at least your aunt and uncle are nice people."

"Yeah that is true," the boy admitted. "Still, I wish that my parents were here with me instead of up in Heaven with the angels."

Beast Boy nodded in sympathy, placed his hand back on the boy's shoulder, and then said, "I know how you feel. I've often wished the same about my parents more than once." Beast Boy then took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and maintained a peaceful silence for a bit. Then he opened his eyes, a small toothy grin on his face, and he stated, "But you know what?"

"What?"

Beast Boy's smile widened, his emerald eyes now starting to gleam, and he responded, "Even though your parents aren't alive and right here with you in person anymore, they'll always still be around watching over from you from Heaven."

The younger boy thought to himself. "I guess that's true."

Beast Boy chuckled. "And even if that weren't true," he then stated. "You'll always have them around." He then pressed the tip of his right index finger against the area where the young boy's heart was located. "Right here."

The younger boy chuckled, hung his head in embarrassment, and then looked back up at the teenage green hero who'd now admitted to be not entirely that different from himself in this one important regard, a small smile on his face. "That's certainly true as well. Thank you."

"You're welcome," said Beast boy. He then looked at what was lying on top of a small beach bucket. "Is that a harmonica?"

The boy looked at the object in question, then back at Beast Boy, and then nodded. "Yep. It was my dad's. It was one of the only things that they were able to salvage from the wreckage. My uncle thought it would only be appropriate for me to have it."

"Smart choice," Beast Boy stated. He then chuckled, stretched his hand towards it, and asked, "Mind if I try to play it?"

The boy smiled. "Go ahead."

"Why thank you," said Beast Boy. He picked up the instrument, positioned it appropriately in his mouth, and played a small note on it. After playing that single note, he directed his eyes at the boy, a look inside them that silently asked for permission to continue. The boy nodded, and Beast Boy smiled. Then the changeling transformed into an olive baboon (the species name now oddly appropriate in how this particular morph was a dark olive green), reconfigured his positioning of the harmonica, and then resumed his playing of the harmonica. The tune in question was an exact note by note replica of the tune that had been played by Tony Malone in _Escape to Witch Mountain_ when he'd telekinetically caused a group of toys and puppets to dance around to his harmonica playing. As Beast Boy did this, he started randomly skipping along the beach. And before long, both the young boy he'd just now cheered up and the six kids he'd played beach ball with started skipping along behind him in an impromptu parade.

At the sight of this hilariously heartwarming spectacle, every single person at the beach found themselves either 'aw'-ing happily at the cuteness of the scene, cheering happily, or simply smiling silently as they found themselves feeling sentimental and reminiscing their own childhood memories. The other Titans were also staring in stunned approval, even Raven looked noticeably happy as she watched her green teammate's antics. Even the mystery girl who'd unobtrusively been watching the Titans found herself smiling wistfully as she watched the green baboon skipping along and playing the harmonica like a professional as the seven little kids happily skipped along behind him and followed his every move. From what she remembered, he'd always been both good with kids, and just the type of person to go to such lengths as he was currently going to allow people to have fun. And for another few minutes, the joyous spectacle continued, the entire beach's worth of visitors feeling as if they could never possibly be happier.

. . . . .

However, little did all the people at Jump City Beach know that there was something located about 5 or 10 miles of the coast of California heading straight towards them that would bring a very real negative element to their currently quite happy day. This very detail was something that the black haired, ebony eyed, and blue and black jump suited boy knew all too well as he hurriedly swam through the deep and turbulent ocean waters in an effort to reach that very location. But at that moment, he didn't care. He desperately needed help. And the only people he knew that were conveniently available and capable providing him with the help he needed lived right around that area. "I have to get to Jump City," he thought to himself. "I have to get to Jump City." And indeed he did, for both his life, as well as those of some very good friends of his, heavily depended on it.

Now to be fair, it wasn't so much this boy that was very soon to serve as the upcoming negative element for the people at Jump City Beach. Rather, it was the thing far worse and actually deserving of fear about a few miles or so behind him that was currently being waylaid by some helpful sharks that he'd passed by earlier. Panting heavily, the 17 year old boy continued to swim rapidly through the water, not daring to slow down, but at the same time trying to at least slightly calm himself down. "I should be ok for the last few miles," he thought to himself in a hopeful manner. "I mean, those friends of mine should be able to keep it busy for another half hour at the most . . ."

His optimistic thoughts were promptly dispelled when he heard a nightmare making roar coming from very close behind him. He turned his head, eyes widening at the sight of none other than the very thing pursuing him that his shark friends had been holding off not too long ago. It seemed that it had managed to successfully fight off its way layers even earlier than the boy had thought. Panting in terror, the boy started swimming even faster, for in spite of how it was still relatively far away, he knew that it wouldn't take too long an amount of time for the creature to come very dangerously closer to him.

As it would soon turn out, the creature actually did manage to get surprisingly close in proximity to the boy, close enough that it could have snapped him up in its jaws if it had so desired. But when the creature did actually open its jaws, it didn't lunge forward to gobble up the unfortunate teenage boy. Instead, the boy had just enough time to look behind him and scream before the creature unleashed another paranoia inducing roar. And this time, due to how close the creature was behind the boy, the force of the roar proved powerful enough to both cause a large wave to start forming and send the boy hurtling helplessly through the water at a rocket-fast speed straight towards the very destination he'd been in such a hurry to reach.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, back at Jump City Beach, Beast Boy had finally ended his impromptu parade and returned the harmonica to its owner. After that, and a massive round of applause from all the other people gathered, Beast Boy had said his goodbyes and headed off to rejoin his four fellow Titans, and the kids' parents, or aunt and uncle in the case of the one boy, came to let their kids know that it would soon be time to go. Before long, the seven kids and their families had left the beach to head back into the city proper, and Beast Boy was lounging back with his four friends once more.

"That was quite a show man!" Cyborg yelled happily.

Beast Boy chuckled, directed his gaze towards his bionic best friend, and stated, "Thanks dude. I see you've finished up with your party with the beach boys. Did you enjoy their barbecue?"

"You betcha!" Cyborg yelled, rubbing his stomach happily as he remembered the indeed delicious taste.

"Good, I still don't wanna eat any."

"Totally didn't see that coming," Raven stated sarcastically.

Starfire giggled, raised her fists in the air happily, and stated with her eyes closed, "Oh what a joyous day. I feel almost as happy now as I did on my 17th Birthday party last month!" And indeed, Starfire had turned 17 the previous month, and had been treated to a very joyous and lively birthday party by all her friends. The other Titans, surprisingly including Raven, smiled warmly as they too remembered the event in question. At that moment, it seemed as if nothing could ruin their happy mood.

However, they were abruptly knocked out from that very mood when they heard a large multitude of girl's voices shouting, "Jackson look out!"

The Titans turned their attention towards the direction of the voices, and they saw a large multitude of teenage girls, plus almost all the other people at the beach looking and pointing worriedly towards the ocean. The two most worried looking people by far, however, were two chestnut brown haired adults, one a man and the other a woman, who looked absolutely panic stricken.

Alerted, the Titans directed their gaze towards the ocean just in time to see a large wave rocketing at an unnaturally fast speed towards a teenage boy with brown hair in a low ponytail, onyx black eyes, and dressed in a pair of red and black 'Shego' patterned swimming trunks surfing astride a lightning bolt patterned surf board. At the sight and sound of the shouting and panicked people on the beach in front of him, the loudest and most terrified coming from his parents, the boy turned his head to look behind him and shriek before the wave came seconds away from plowing into him. However, seconds before the wave itself could come crashing down on him, something unseen in the water seemed to bump against the bottom of the surf board, and knock both it and the boy off balance and into the water right as the wave zoomed through the area they'd been in and coming to a crashing stop at the coast of the beach.

Mere seconds after the tip of the wave crashed against the shore, the surf board, the boy who'd been riding it, and another boy with much longer black hair and a blue and black unitard who looked around the same age as the surfing boy burst out of the water and bounced across the beach a couple times before coming to a screeching halt a couple inches away from the two particularly terrified adults. However, the Titans needed only to look at the black haired boy for one second before their eyes widened, they looked at each other with the same silent message, and they then got up and started to rush over in the direction of the two sprawled out boys. The eyes of the one girl who'd been watching the Titans before this moment also widened. She too recognized the black haired boy in the unitard.

After a tense few seconds, both boys coughed and spluttered, and got themselves straightened back up onto their feet. The black haired boy looked at the surf board, then directed a guilty grimace towards the brown haired civilian. "Oops," he stated. "Sorry."

The other boy chuckled, rubbed his hand through his now ponytail-less hair, and said, "Oh it's ok. It's not your fault whatever happened back there. Besides, you actually may have inadvertently saved my life by crashing into my board. After all, if you hadn't crashed into it and knocked me into the water right as that wave arrived, that would have probably smashed me to death against my board or something."

The other boy chuckled nervously, rubbed his hands through his own black hair. "If you say so."

The brown haired boy chuckled, shook his head side to side, and smiled at the boy who'd crashed into him and inadvertently saved his life. "Come on dude," he said. "Is that the proper way to respond to someone thanking you?"

The other boy gulped, hung his head in embarrassment, and then said, "Sorry. You're welcome."

The civilian chuckled, gave the other a friendly punch on the shoulder, and then said, "Now that's what I'm talking about buddy!"

The black haired boy chuckled nervously, said "Good to know," and then collapsed down onto his hands and knees, panting and groaning in exhaustion and pain.

The other boy's eyes took on a look of concern. "Hey, are you ok?"

"I'm fine," replied the boy who'd collapsed. "But I need to know, are the Teen Titans anywhere nearby?"

The other boy was about to answer when both boys heard a familiar voice yell, "Aqualad!"

Aqualad turned his head to his right, and smiled weakly as he saw the five friends he'd just now come searching for rushing straight towards him. The Atlantean found himself giving a weak wave with his hand towards his five fellow teenage heroes right as they made it to the exact spot he was at.

Upon reaching the area where there Atlantean friend was, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and the two girls gathered around Aqualad to try to help him up. Robin, on the other hand, briefly stopped, turned to the civilian boy, and said, "Thank you. We'll take care of him."

The civilian nodded, not needing to be told twice from the leader of Jump City's local super hero team, and then hurried right over to his parents, who promptly embraced him with joy, tears of terror and relief pouring from their faces. No sooner had his parents released him when a young girl around the same age as him with pale blonde hair and yellowish hazel eyes ran up to him, jumped at him, and gave him a tight hug of her own, eyes streaming with tears of relief and fear. The other boy was stunned at first, but then he returned the gesture, whispering to the girl that everything would be ok. None of the people gathered seemed to notice or care about how a large group of other teenage girls was directing envious glares towards the girl who was now hugging the boy.

Meanwhile, Robin had now joined his four friends in the circle around Aqualad, and he stated, "What happened, are you ok?"

"I'll be fine," Aqualad panted before he lifted his head to look Robin straight in the eyes (or more accurately, the mask covering them) and said, "But you can't worry about me right now. Right now, there are bigger things you're gonna need to worry about real soon."

"What are you talking about?" Cyborg asked.

"Yeah dude," Beast Boy chimed in. "Look at you, you could soon end up dying from exhaustion at the state you currently appear to be in."

"Beast Boy, I'm fine," Aqualad snapped impatiently, "But right now . . ."

The sound of an earthshaking roar from somewhere further out to sea from the beach promptly interrupted the Atlantean before he had a chance to finish his sentence. At the sound of the roar, all the people on the beach, Titans and civilians alike looked straight out in the direction of the ocean. Aqualad grimaced, directed a half nervous and half sheepish side glance towards the ocean, and then said, "I might have accidentally led another unexpected guest here." Seconds after Aqualad said this last bit, bubbles started violently erupting out from a spot in the ocean a couple yards or so away from the shoreline.

 **And just like that, the next epic story of Teen Titans Season 6 begins! Once again, here's to me hoping that you enjoyed this, will be eagerly looking forward to what's to come, and that you'll leave a respectable amount of feedback/reviews. Again, looking forward to seeing what you guys have to think!**

 **Coming up Next: Aqualad's mysterious pursuer finally reveals itself in full, resulting in the Titans engaging in an epic battle against it to prevent it from killing Aqualad (not to mention from possibly destroying Jump City in the process). However, once the battle is over, little do the Titans know that a very unexpected surprise is awaiting them.**


	2. A Beach-Front Battle

**Hey guys! I am SO sorry I kept you all waiting, but now, at long last, I finally have posted the first 'non-prologue' chapter for Geo-Force! And in this long awaited chapter, the Titans finally receive a proper introduction to Aqualad's mysterious pursuer, and do battle with it in the process. However, not too long after the battle is over, the Titans find themselves dealing with yet another surprise that may very well be even more unpleasant. Sound exciting? I certainly hope so! Here's to also hoping that you read, enjoy, and leave plenty of feedback!**

 **But first, just as a reminder, I do not own any Teen Titans or similar DC affiliated material. Again, hope you enjoy!**

 **Chapter 1:**

 **A Beach-Front Battle**

For what seemed like an hour, all the people gathered on the beach gaped in horror at the violent bubbling occurring at that particular area of the ocean. Then, a three pointed crest of ridges that appeared to resemble a trio of conjoined murky green shark fins started to rise out from the water. However, it wasn't until the rest of the creature had risen up out of the water in its full entirety that all the civilians found themselves screaming in terror at the sight of the unholy monster that had now arrived at Jump City Beach.

The creature in question, despite the appearance of the unnerving crest attached to it, was most certainly not a green shark with three dorsal fins. For starters, the crest in question was on the top of the beast's head, which heavily resembled that of a dragon. The creature's dragon-like head, was in turn attached to a long serpentine neck with a long series of spiked ridges shaped in a very similar way as the crest on the top of its head. And attached at the very bottom of this long serpentine body and neck were eight gigantic green octopus-like tentacles. All these details, combined with the fact that the creature was about the same size as Titans' Tower, made this monster a very terrifying sight to behold.

As all the people gathered on the beach stared in a mixture of horror and awe at the sight of it, the creature growled, its greenish yellow eyes narrowed in a predatory glare. Then the beast rapidly reared its head upward, its jaws snapped open, and it unleashed an angry dragon-like roar. As it roared, it was revealed to have both a set of intimidating shark-like teeth and a large red three-pointed forked tongue inside its mouth. The creature finished its roar, closed its mouth, and then started making its way closer to the shore, swinging its tentacles around slowly as if it were paddling, roaring in a mixture of fury and beastly triumph.

At this point, Robin immediately threw all immediate earlier concern over Aqualad's current state of health out the window. "Titans go!" he yelled as he pointed at the monster. In a flash, the Titans began to rush towards the ocean to do battle with the monster that now dared to threaten the safety of their city.

Robin was running at the very front, and he proceeded to hurl a small flurry of explosive flame disks towards the monster. Starfire was zooming along behind Robin in the air, and she fired a storm of star bolts. Raven was levitating behind Starfire, and she sent a volley of shadow orbs flying towards the sea creature. Finally, at the very back, Beast Boy was flying through the air as a pteranodon while carrying Cyborg by the shoulders in his talons; and Cyborg proceeded from this position to activate his right sonic cannon and unleash a powerful laser blast towards the incoming monster.

The monster was forced to a halt, and it roared in pain and rage as it felt the barrage of explosive disks, star bolts, and shadow orbs crashing against its body and exploding. When the storm of projectiles finally ended, the creature directly faced the Titans responsible, roared, and lifted up its front-most tentacle in preparation for slamming it downwards. But then Cyborg's sonic blast struck the tentacle right at the root where it connected to the creature's body, and it detached and sunk into the water. The creature glared at Cyborg, then stared calmly down towards the empty spot where its detached tentacle had been, just in time for another tentacle to sprout out and split into two tentacles, effectively making it a nine-tentacled monster out of what had originally been an eight-tentacled monster.

At the sight of this, the Titans came to a brief stop. "Well that probably didn't help us very much," Cyborg stated.

"You think?" Robin stated with a glare.

The monster snapped its head upward and roared again before proceeding to resume its paddling swim towards the shoreline.

Thinking quickly, Robin yelled out to the civilians, "Evacuate!" The civilians didn't need to be told twice, and they all started stampeding out of the beach. With the civilians now safely getting out of the way, the Titans all looked back to the monster, and then charged in to resume their battle properly. Unfortunately, the monster was ready for them this time, and it proceeded to attack first.

With a swing of one of its tentacles, the monster sent Robin flying off to the side. Then it rocketed its head backwards in an upward slant, slamming the top of its head into Starfire, who had flown behind it in an effort to draw its attention by blasting that area with her star bolts. Next the monster sent Raven flying backward by unleashing a roar of the same frequency it had used to send Aqualad hurtling over to the beach. With three Titans now momentarily out of the way, the monster then took a deep breath, aimed its head at Cyborg and Beast Boy, and then unleashed a massive jet of boiling water. The water spout plowed into the duo and sent them rocketing backward.

Right as this was happening, the group of Murakami High girls were discreetly watching the battle unfold from nearby a large billboard right there by the beach. They all had smug looks on their faces that hinted that they rather liked what they were seeing, and not in regard to the actual battle as opposed to some of the combatants involved. The only original members of the group who weren't there at that moment were Stephany and the one girl who'd been earlier observing the Titans.

At that moment, the only thing that the girls gathered in that area had on their minds as they looked each other in the eyes was the intent wondering as to what they'd seen in Jackson Carver when they currently had three pieces of surprisingly nice bits of eye candy doing battle against a savage monster right in front of them. However, they were soon knocked back down to Earth when they heard a voice yell, "Um excuse me, I thought Robin told you to leave?"

The girls all turned their heads towards the voice, glaring at the person in question, which happened to be a now slightly healthier Aqualad. "Screw you fish face!" yelled one of the girls, an African American girl.

"Yeah," chimed in one of her companions, a ginger haired girl. "Back off, we're trying to enjoy the show here!"

"I'm serious!" Aqualad yelled, his own eyes narrowing in an annoyed glare. "Civilians like you could get killed if you don't evacuate during situations like these!"

At the sound of this, the majority of the girls giggled and shook their heads side to side as if to say 'yeah right.' The two 'leaders,' meanwhile, just smirked at Aqualad.

"Oh please," said the black girl. "It's not _that_ bad!"

"He has a point you know," said another voice from the other side of the girls. They all looked in that direction, and their eyes narrowed at the sight of the one girl who had been observing the Titans.

"Screw you Goldilocks," said the redhead arrogantly. "It's just a little tussle with a monster, and it's like God knows how many feet away from us. It's not like the sky is falling!"

However, exactly one second after the redhead made this comment, she and the other girls all felt something massive and quite heavy zoom inches over their heads before then hearing a loud smacking noise coming from the area where the billboard was located. They all turned their heads in that direction in shock just in time to see the now quite crumpled billboard collapse and buckle from the weight of Cyborg and Beast Boy, who had been sent pounding into the billboard by the force of the water jet that the monster had blasted them with not too long ago. Within seconds, the billboard completely lost footing from its roots and it came to a crashing slam against the ground under the weight of the two teenage heroes that had crashed into it. At the sight of the wrecked billboard, all the girls apart from the one who'd tried to get them obey Aqualad's warning gulped. For they knew how they very narrowly the two Titans had avoided crashing into them instead of the billboard. The black girl and her red headed companion looked each other in the eyes nervously, uncertain as to what to do, and then slowly started inching their way towards the trashed billboard as if about to check to see if Cyborg and Beast Boy were alright.

But then, right as the two girls had taken about three steps, Cyborg seemed to just erupt from the wreckage and landed foot first right in front of them. The two girls screamed and fell flat on their backs, and Cyborg proceeded to practically leap right over them with a single leaping stride as he proceeded to run back towards the ocean and the sea monster, growling angrily. The two girls managed to look away from the bionic teen and back towards the direction of the billboard just in time to see a large green dinosaur's leg and foot slam down hard on the very same area that Cyborg had landed upon before then swinging right over them as the creature it was attached to made its way towards the ocean as well. The two girls turned their heads to look in that particular direction once again, and saw a mighty green spinosaurus stomping along at a breakneck speed right behind Cyborg, emitting a savage warbling roar as it followed close behind Cyborg.

"You were saying?"

At the sound of this half irritated and half mocking question, the girls all looked back at Aqualad, who now had a very annoyed look on his face that silently stated, 'told you so.' The girls all gulped, looked each other in the eyes, and silently agreed unanimously that the Atlantean boy had a very valid point.

"Uh, yeah, we were just leaving," said the black girl. "Run girls!"

In a flash, the entire group hurried out of the beach past the wreckage of the billboard.

When the last of the other girls had left, the blonde who'd been watching the Titans gave a silent thanks to Aqualad with a nod of her head. "Thanks for that."

"No problem," stated the Atlantean with a nervous chuckle. "My friends certainly picked the right time to crash."

Meanwhile, Cyborg and Beast Boy were now inches away from reaching the water and rejoining the battle against the sea monster. Cyborg had his sonic cannon at the ready while Beast Boy was snarling and roaring in bloodlust while swinging its tail and clawed hands threateningly from side to side. They were ready to fight.

Unfortunately, so was the monster, and with the other three Titans recovering too late to reach it in time to distract its attention, it attacked first. Swift as a riptide, it lashed out one of its tentacles, wrapped it around Cyborg's legs, and lifted him up before swinging him backwards right at Beast Boy. The action swiped the legs of the mighty spinosaurus out from under it and caused it to fall down hard on the ground where it bounced three times before skidding to a halt on its belly. No sooner had the sea monster incapacitated Beast Boy when he swung Cyborg in the opposite direction, slamming him hard into Robin. And at the exact same time that Cyborg pounded into Robin, the monster let go of Cyborg's ankles, sending the two teenage heroes flying backward.

The monster then grabbed Beast Boy by the tail. With a screeching roar from Beast Boy, the changeling found himself getting lifted up into the air and swung over the sea monster's head before then getting slammed down hard into the water. Fortunately, Beast Boy managed to transform himself from a spinosaurus to an elasmosaurus right as he was starting to get swung down towards the water, and he both suffered little damage from the impact and became less likely to die as a result of drowning the way the monster had probably planned him to do.

The monster glared in the direction of the area where it had submerged the shape shifter, suspicious as to what form he had been in when slammed into the water compared to when earlier lifted up. But then it roared in surprise and pain when it felt something bite it in . . . a rather sensitive area. In a reflex action, the monster let go of Beast Boy's tail, and the green plesiosaur swam away by about a couple feet before its head surfaced, its face both hissing in triumph and seemingly coughing and spluttering over a disgusting taste of something it had bitten. "Yuck!" Beast Boy the elasmosaurus thought to himself. "Note to self; DO NOT bite that area AGAIN!"

But then the creature grabbed the elasmosaurus by both the neck and the tail and lifted it up into the air before positioning itself as if about to bite the plesiosaur on the back. Unfortunately for the monster, right as it snapped its jaws at the shape shifter, he turned into a sea turtle. The monster let out a pained shriek as it felt its jaws crunch painfully against the hard shell of the sea turtle.

Then the monster heard a feminine shriek coming from its right and it directed its gaze in that direction from the corners of its eyes. It saw Starfire flying towards it with her eye beams charging up. In a flash, the monster removed its jaws from their painful grip on Beast Boy's shell and positioned it in front of its face like a shield at the exact moment that Starfire fired her laser beams. The beams bounced off of Beast Boy's shell and bopped her on the top of her head, sending her drifting off balance. In that moment, with Starfire incapacitated, the monster thrusted its tentacles grasping Beast Boy forward, causing the rock hard shell of Beast Boy's sea turtle form to slam painfully right in Starfire's face. When the monster withdrew Beast Boy from Starfire, Starfire briefly remained still, floating in the sky with her hands raised and her eyes closed in pain. In fact, Starfire's eyes felt so much pain that the area around them would have been shown throbbing and alternating between red and her natural color if this had been happening in a cartoon world.

When Starfire finally opened her eyes, she was too late to dodge when the monster threw Beast Boy at her like a discus. The side of the turtle's shell slammed painfully into her stomach and sent her rocketing backward towards the beach. Starfire landed on her back, and Beast Boy was sent flying off of her as a result of Starfire's impact with the ground. He in turn landed on his own back and spun around like a bowl before coming to a stop. Beast Boy extended his head and flippers out from his shell, directed a glance towards the sea monster, and then turned into a reticulated python before righting himself and slithering back towards the creature, hissing viciously with his fangs and tongue showing. Starfire, at the same time, got back on her feet and took to the air once more.

Meanwhile, Raven was hovering nearby where Beast Boy had been lying down while in spinosaurus form, and she growled, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos," causing a large stream of sand to rise up from the ground and go flying at the monster. The monster spat out a burst of boiling water, blasting straight through the sand and dissipating it before plowing into Raven and knocking her out of the sky. Raven fell on her back, coughing and spluttering from the water. Then she shrieked when she suddenly felt what appeared to be a strong wind dragging her off the ground and towards the monster. The 'wind' turned out to be the monster attempting to inhale her into its now wide open jaws.

Fortunately for the sorceress, she was spared from becoming the monster's lunch when a large green gorilla came flying at the monster from seemingly out of nowhere before slamming its fists into the side of the monster's head. The monster jerked its head to the side, its eyes closed in pain and its vacuum inhalation shut off, and the green gorilla that had pounded it with its fists hurtled towards the water before turning into a shark right before landing within the ocean. Right as the monster turned around to face the area where Beast Boy had landed, the green great white shark lunged out of the water with its jaws open to the fullest and aiming straight for the monster's neck.

The monster swung its body to its left, and Beast Boy sailed harmlessly past it. Right as Beast Boy's tail went past the monster, the monster grabbed him by the tail, swung him around in the air, and then repositioned him so that he had his back facing the shore and the monster was gripping him by the jaws. The monster snarled, and then prepared to pull Beast Boy's jaws open to the point of snapping them. But Beast Boy's quick thinking came into play in time yet again, and he turned into a much tinier fish that proved slippery enough to slip right out of the monster's grip. Beast Boy the fish landed on the beach sand and bounced away three times or so before then taking on the shape of a lion, rearing its head up in the monster's direction, and uttering a harsh roar of challenge.

The monster roared back, and reared its head up as if about to try to bite at Beast Boy. But then it halted when it felt something coiling around its neck. It observed the area around its throat and found what appeared to be Robin's grappling hook wrapped around its neck. Then it felt something tug at the rope, and it turned its head in time to see Robin hurtling towards it with his fist drawn back as if to punch it. The monster was unable to move its head aside in time to dodge Robin's attack, and the Boy Wonder's fist pounded it right in its right eye.

As the monster was reeling from the blow dealt upon it by Robin's fist, the leader of the Titans jumped up from the side of the monster's head to the top, and then started ramming his fists on the area above the beast's eyes. "Take this Seaweed Breath!"

The monster howled, lifted up a tentacle, and grabbed Robin by the cape before yanking him off of its head and dangling him right in front of its face. As Robin dangled there in front of the monster and kicked his legs in a desperate attempt to wriggle his cape from the monster's grasp, the monster snarled, and then roared hungrily at the Boy Wonder.

A large green laser blast struck the monster on the back of the head, and it roared, letting go of Robin in the process. The Boy Wonder landed in the ocean, and swam back to shore. When he got back on land, he looked back towards the monster in time to see it facing Starfire, who had obviously blasted it earlier. As Robin watched, Starfire threw a large star bolt into the monster's face. The creature roared in rage upon getting hit by the star bolt, and it retaliated with a burst of its scalding breath. Starfire flew to her left in time to dodge the blast, and she responded with a burst of her eye beams. The lasers struck the monster in the eye, and it howled in pain.

Starfire flew downwards so that she could aim her star bolts at the monster's throat, but the monster recovered before she got the chance to fire. The monster growled, and snapped its teeth in her direction, but she flew away from the area in time to avoid getting swallowed, making a point to blast it on the back of its head with a star bolt immediately afterward just to make a point. The monster roared, turned its head to direct a furious snarl towards the Tamaranean, and unleashed a second burst of boiling water from its mouth, only for Starfire to dodge yet again.

But this time, instead of flying to the side, Starfire dodged the blast by flying downwards and towards the creature. This time, she planned to wrap her arms around its neck, lift it up, and slam it down on the beach. Unfortunately, right as Starfire was seconds away from reaching sufficient range to enact her planned attack, the monster finished its breath attack, lowered its head to directly face her, and unleashed its roar at supersonic mode once more. The force of the roar sent Starfire rocketing backward and down towards the ocean, where she landed in the water with a powerful splash.

Starfire had just surfaced back up from the water, gasping for breath, when the monster grabbed her by the throat with one of its tentacles, lifted her up, and hissed in malicious pleasure towards her while licking its chops with its three pointed tongue in apparent anticipation of how she would taste. Robin, sensing what the monster planned to do, reached for a birdirang or similar weapon he could use to distract the monster, but the creature sent him flying away with a swing of one of its other tentacles. In a panic, Starfire began charging up her eyebeams, but the monster then blasted her right in the face with its agonizingly hot water breath attack. The combined effects of both getting splashed in the face and the boiling heat caused Starfire to close her eyes and cough. In that instant, while Starfire was still rendered helpless by the effects of getting splashed in the face by the boiling water, the monster opened its mouth once more to prepare to eat her.

Fortunately for the Tamaranean, the monster was forced to direct its attention elsewhere when it felt a laser blast strike it on the head. This laser, however, felt much larger and more powerful than the ones that Starfire had used. The monster growled, turned its head, and found its eyes narrowing when it saw Cyborg rushing towards it with his right arm sonic cannon at the ready.

In a flash, right as Cyborg was charging up another blast, the monster lifted up one of its unoccupied tentacles and slammed it hard on the ground directly in front of Cyborg. The resulting shockwave sent the bionic teenager flying backward. He crashed right into the grill that the partying beach boys had been using earlier and been forced to leave behind when they evacuated the beach.

The monster was still glaring in Cyborg's direction when it felt a series of what appeared to be some sort of energy orbs striking it on the top of its head and heard an unearthly shriek that sounded like a mixture between a reptile and a bird. It turned its head in the direction that the orbs and shriek had come from in time to see Raven and Beast Boy flying towards him, the latter being in the form of a pteranodon.

The monster snarled at the sight of the two airborne heroes, and it unleashed its supersonic roar yet again. The noise waves produced blasted Raven and Beast Boy out of the sky and sent them crashing face-down on the sand of the beach before skidding to a halt not too far away from where Cyborg was now positioned.

The monster had just enough time to snort and direct an almost mocking look towards the three downed super heroes before it suddenly felt an agonizing pain coming from the root of the tentacle that was wrapped around Starfire's throat. The Tamaranean, having managed to recover from her earlier discomfort in the midst of the monster's distraction, had managed to detach the tentacle with a single mighty tug. The monster roared in agony as it felt its tentacle being so forcefully removed. Starfire snarled, her eyes glowing green, and then encased her right fist in star bolt energy before giving the monster a solid punch upside the head. With this star bolt enhanced punch, she struck the monster with such a powerful blow that it was sent rocketing through the water before coming to a splashing stop about seven yards away.

Starfire directed a half relieved and half exhausted smile towards the area where the monster had come to a stop before crashing and sinking below the water. "And stay down," she thought to herself.

"Starfire!"

Starfire turned her head in time to see Robin come to a stop nearby, clearly looking worried for her safety. The Tamaranean smiled at the sight of her boyfriend looking so caringly worried for her and panting nearby on the beach, and then said, "Fear not Robin, I am quite alright."

"I know that Star, but that doesn't mean I don't have to stop . . . LOOK OUT!"

Starfire turned her head instinctively in the direction Robin pointed when he made that abrupt warning shout. And she shrieked upon sight of the monster, which had now managed to sprout another two tentacles to replace the one Starfire had yanked off, jumping out of the water and sailing through the air like a whale, its jaws open and at the ready to gobble Starfire up. The Tamaranean screamed, and flew away towards Robin just in time to once again avoid getting snapped up inside the monster's mighty jaws before the creature then crashed headfirst into the water, again much like a whale.

For a moment, Robin and Starfire stared at the area where the monster had landed in the midst of its breaching, not daring to remove their eyes from that one location. Then the monster's head rose back out of the sea, and it roared in fury before turning its head to face the two heroes once more. As Robin and Starfire gaped at the enraged monster in shock, the monster snarled, turned its head slightly, and then started spinning itself around in circles. Within seconds, the rapid spinning motion of the creature's body and tentacles caused a massive whirlpool to form around it before massive swirling walls of water began to rise and spin around the swiftly rotating monster. As this was happening, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven also gaped in stunned silence at the display.

Then, as the massive swirling tornado of water that the monster had formed around itself began to move increasingly further away from the beach, the Titans began to feel both confused and worried about just what the monster was doing and why. But even with their suspicions, they never would have guessed what the monster had in the end planned to do at that moment. For after reaching a sufficient distance away from the shore, it abruptly stopped spinning, sending the watery cyclone around it expanding outward and forming a massive wall. At the sight of the newly created water wall, the Titans' eyes widened, for the wall looked just big enough to bulldoze all of Jump City into the ground if it were to take on the form of a wave. And of course, not too long after the Titans had that thought, the monster then proceeded to roar, causing the large wall of water to take on the form of a wave that began hurtling straight towards Jump City.

In that instant, Raven took a deep breath, concentrated with all her might, and summoned a massive wall of shadow energy to block the wave. The monster took notice of this, and began to add on to the pressure against Raven's summoned barrier by rotating its ten tentacles while in a more slanted position that allowed its tentacles to move more like the propeller of a boat motor. This action caused more water to surge against the wave, causing it to expand in an effort to get it to overflow from the top of Raven's barrier. Raven gritted her teeth and winced as she tried her hardest to maintain full strength of the barrier she'd summoned. Unfortunately, despite her efforts, she soon started to get tired and rapidly lose strength.

Beast Boy noticed this, and he hurriedly placed his hands on Raven's shoulders and shouted, "Don't give up Raven! You can do this! I know you can!"

"I . . . can't!" Raven growled.

"Yes you can!" Beast Boy yelled encouragingly. "Just keep fighting and you can do it! I know you can!"

"It's too . . . much," Raven groaned. "I'm not . . . strong enough."

"Yes you are!" Beast Boy yelled back, desperate to keep his friend from giving up. "Just think about your father! You always thought you weren't strong enough to stand up to him, but look what's happened! You _were_ able to stop your father! If you can do that, then you can stop this wave!"

Beast Boy leaned his head so that his head was even closer to Raven's ear. "Trust me," he stated. "You can do this. I believe in you, and so do the others. Just believe and keep fighting, and I know you can do it."

Raven took a brief look at Beast Boy, saw the determined and encouraging look in his face, and then she took a deep breath, looked back directly towards her summoned barrier, and closed her eyes as she started to concentrate once more. After a tense few minutes, the barrier began to slowly increase in size until it eventually became big enough for all the water being pressed up against it to form a massive wall and cliff facing opposite Jump City. Seconds later, the large mountain of water hurtled down straight towards the monster, who didn't even notice the impending mass of water in its furious efforts to beat down Raven's summoned barrier. However, when it finally noticed the massive shadow above it, it finally looked up, only to shriek in shock when it saw the avalanche of water plummeting towards it.

In a gigantic splash, the monster was buried under the titanic mass of ocean water, and the resulting impact caused a massive backwards series of waves, eddies, and riptides. By the time the water had finally calmed back down to its natural state, and Raven finally dared to lower her barrier, there was no sign of the monster. For about a minute, the five Titans stared intently out towards the ocean to see if they could find even the slightest hint of the monster still being in the area. When the monster still didn't show up, Robin nodded his head. "I guess it must be gone now."

"Thank Azar," Raven managed to state weakly before she then collapsed onto her hands and knees and started panting.

Beast Boy bent over to check to see if the sorceress was alright. "Are you ok?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Raven gasped. "Just, need some time to rest."

"That barrier must have taken a lot of energy out of her," Cyborg stated.

"No kidding," Robin agreed. "If the expenditure of that much power can leave _this_ kind of effect on Raven, I shudder to think of what would have happened if she'd ended up having to use even more."

Starfire placed her hand on Robin's shoulder. "Fear not Robin. Friend Raven will be perfectly fine. The monster is gone, and she has no need now to fight without giving herself proper time to recuperate."

"I certainly hope so," said Beast Boy. He then directed a slight smile towards Raven before saying, "It'd be real heartbreaking if Raven had to die today."

"Oh please," Raven droned sarcastically, but with a small treacherous smile coming on her face.

Meanwhile, a now sufficiently recovered Aqualad was shaking his head side to side in amazement as he watched the scene unfold alongside the mystery girl. "I'll be," said Aqualad. "Those friends of mine never cease to amaze me."

"Join the club," the girl stated in agreement, but in a slightly half-hearted tone as her face conveyed both happiness and dread. She wasn't entirely certain now as to whether her choice to stay and watch alongside Aqualad was truly going to be as good of an idea as she had at first thought.

Robin looked towards the sky, noticed the angle that the sun had reached, and then looked back at his four teammates before staying, "Well needless to say, great job team. Now let's go ahead and . . ."

The monster suddenly popped out of the ocean area directly in front of them, roaring in a mixture of rage and triumph. The Titans reared back, eyes widened and jaws dropped. As the Titans remained where they were, stunned speechless at the unexpected return of the monster they'd earlier been battling, the creature snarled, showing its intimidating teeth, and then roared in fury.

In a flash, Starfire and the boys tensed up into battle ready positions while Raven started taking a series of deep breaths in an effort to regain just enough energy to put up a proper fight. But then the monster lashed out a tentacle at lightning speed, wrapped it around Beast Boy's torso, and then yanked him upward. The changeling shrieked as he was yanked up in the sky towards the monster's face.

As the monster held the squirming shape shifted up in front of its face, its eyes narrowed, and its mouth emitting a low hungry snarl, Beast Boy turned his head to look the beast straight in the eye. With a furious glare on his face as he stared into the monster's cold predatory eyes, the green changeling yelled, "I'll bet you're not volt proof!"

Beast Boy transformed into an electric eel, and promptly unleashed the full power of its natural electrical charge without hesitation. The monster roared in shock and pain as it became engulfed in massive tendrils of electricity. It was in such a state of pain and distraction, in fact, that it even found itself unable to let go of Beast Boy even while the changeling was still even now in the midst of violently electrocuting it.

"Good idea!" Robin yelled, before then pointing at Beast Boy and the monster and shouting, "Titans, zap it!"

The other Titans did not need to be told twice. Starfire flew over to what appeared to be a large cord attached to a massive boom box, unplugged it, and threw the plug end into the water right at the monster's tentacles. The electrical current released from the cord engulfed the monster's tentacles and intensified the electrocution.

Cyborg quickly pressed a few keys built into his right arm, and then pointed his fingers at the monster as they proceeded to convert into what looked like a mix between guns and tasers. Seconds later, bolts of electricity spouted from Cyborg's fingers and struck the monster in the 'abdomen' area. The monster let out an even louder agonized roar as Cyborg proceeded to further add on to the devastating maelstrom that it was now trapped in.

Gritting her teeth, Raven growled, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos." In a flash, a series of power lines from a nearby pylon detached and hovered over to the monster before coiling tightly together around its neck. The electricity unleashed from this newly added source seemed to make the monster almost glow, and the creature howled in agony as its eyes involuntarily widened.

As if the monster weren't already in a bad enough situation at that moment, the monster soon found itself even further down on its luck when Robin proceeded to hurl a rapid-fire volley of voltage disks right into its open mouth. The exploding voltage disks released massive storms of electricity into its mouth, both further intensifying the electrocution from outside and causing it to be even more electrocuted from the inside.

Eventually, as the merciless storm of electricity continued to unfold, the monster closed its eyes, reared its head to face directly upward towards the sky, and let out a final despairing roar before it then lost consciousness, its mouth closed, and it began to tip forward towards the shore. Robin stopped throwing his disks when he saw the creature's mouth close, and he signaled for the others to stop. Starfire withdrew the cord from the water, Cyborg shut off his finger-tip lightning blasters, and Raven withdrew the power lines and reconnected them to their original position before summoning a small shadow energy bubble around Beast Boy and gently extracting him from the monster's grip.

Right as Raven caused the energy bubble to come to a stop directly next to her, the monster's head and neck landed hard on the beach with an emphatic slam. Seconds after impact, the monster let out a final pained groan before then going slack, completely out cold. There was no doubt about it now. This time, the battle was truly over.

Raven dismissed the energy bubble, and Beast Boy masterfully reverted back to human form right as the energy bubble faded away. His feet landed smoothly on the ground, and he directed a smirk towards the unconscious monster before saying, "I've heard of things going up in lights, but this is the first time I've ever seen something go _down_ in lights."

"Very funny," Raven groaned sarcastically before then collapsing once more.

In a flash, Beast Boy went from jokingly smug to heavily concerned as he leaned over to check on his friend's wellbeing. "Are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Raven gasped tiredly. "Just . . . need . . . rest."

Beast Boy promptly leaned over further, draped Raven's right arm over his shoulders, and helped her up onto her feet. "Don't fight it Raven," he stated. "You know you need help."

Raven nodded tiredly as she let Beast Boy help her up. She didn't even bother protesting when Beast Boy then proceeded to half carry and half drag her over to Starfire, Cyborg, and Robin. When Robin saw this, he stepped forward, clearly showing concern. "Is she alright?"

"I'm fine," Raven growled. "I just need rest."

"A _long_ rest," Beast Boy added.

Robin nodded. "Understood. Beast Boy, take Raven back over to where we were sitting before Aqualad arrived. You can keep watch over her while she rests there. In the meantime, Star, Cyborg and I will handle talking to the authorities and discussing with them on what to do with this monster now that we've got it unconscious. It may not be human, but it's still a living thing. Therefore, if there's any way we can get rid of this thing without killing it, I'm definitely willing to try it."

"Got it," Beast Boy stated. He then proceeded to get Raven over to the area where the five local Jump City teen heroes had all been gathered before the dramatic arrival of Aqualad and the sea monster. Robin kept a close eye on the two chromatically challenged heroes as they made their way over to that area. Upon sight of Raven lying down on her towel from earlier while Beast Boy took on a cross-legged seating position on his own towel while facing Raven, Robin was finally satisfied that Raven and Beast Boy would now be perfectly fine, and he turned his head to face the area where he was certain that the cops would inevitably arrive from. For now, even though the actual battle was over, there was still business to attend to.

. . . . .

Half an hour later, the Titans and authorities decided that it would be best for the monster, which the scientist who'd accompanied the cops had determined to possibly be the result of some sort of genetic mutation experimenting, to be moved to a temporary home at a local science facility so that it could be researched before its final fate would be decided at a later date. And so, after the authorities finally left, and the monster was sent off on its way to its upcoming new temporary home, Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg finally relaxed. Now things were finally winding down.

"What's the news?"

The three Titans who'd spoken to the authorities turned their heads and saw none other than Beast Boy and a now fully recovered Raven standing right there.

"No need to worry yet animal lover," Cyborg stated. "For the moment, the monster will stay alive, but in an artificial habitat at some research facility. While there, it will be heavily researched for the sake of figuring out whatever they can about it. And once enough research has been deemed to have been made, the current plan is to hopefully either find a way it can be of use to Jump City or setting it free somewhere where it won't be able to find its way back."

"What if that doesn't work?" Raven asked.

"They said that if left with absolutely no other option, they would be forced to kill it," Cyborg responded. "But fortunately," he then continued right as Beast Boy seemed on the verge of an outburst, "they also said that, in the event that they are forced to kill it, they will make sure it's disposed of humanely."

Beast Boy noticeably calmed down upon hearing this. "Well that's good to hear," he stated in clear relief.

"No kidding," Robin stated.

"That is good to hear."

The five local Titans turned their heads in time to see none other than Aqualad walking up to them. The Titans smiled as they saw their friend and honorary Titan now perfectly healthy. But then they raised their eyebrows in suspicion when they saw that Aqualad wasn't alone. Not too far behind Aqualad, what appeared to be about a 16 or so year old civilian girl dressed in a dark brown two piece swim suit walking up towards them. The girl had fair skin, blue eyes, and golden yellow blonde hair that fell past her shoulders. The girl soon came to a stop on Aqualad's right, and she clasped her hands together behind her back and directed an awkward half smile towards the five local teen heroes.

Seemingly unaware of his friends' confusion as to the presence of the girl, Aqualad stated, "So, I suppose you guys are probably wondering why I came here today?"

"Would it be possible for you to wait on that for a little bit?" Robin asked.

"Um sure," Aqualad stated, clearly confused. "But why . . . ?"

Raven pointed at the blonde girl standing next to the Atlantean. "Who is she?" she asked coldly.

Aqualad turned his head towards the girl, who had now grimaced upon both seeing Raven pointing at her, and hearing the tone that the sorceress had used when asking about her. The Atlantean made a silent 'oh,' chuckled slightly while rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, and then said, "How silly of me. I'm sorry."

He looked at the girl, then back at the other Titans. "Well to be honest, she still hasn't yet really told me her name, but she was with a large group of girls from some local high school here or something and she said that she really needed to talk with you; and apparently she should have had this talk with you a long time ago. And from the way she puts it, I do mean long." He then looked at Beast Boy. "She also said that you in particular would be very likely to recognize her."

The Titans all looked at the girl, their eyes narrowed as they tried to remember whether or not they'd met this girl before. "Um, I honestly don't know what to say Aqualad," said Beast Boy. He briefly looked at the girl again, and then back at Aqualad. "I mean, I'm pretty sure I'd remember it a whole lot better if I'd ever actually met this girl before . . ."

Then Beast Boy abruptly stopped talking. "Wait a minute," he then stated before turning his head to look at the girl once more. His eyes narrowed, and he became oddly silent, almost as if he were trying to remember something. At the sight of the way Beast Boy was now behaving, the other Titans took a closer look at the girl themselves. Truth be told, now that Beast Boy had now brought this matter to particularly high attention, they too were now starting to get the feeling that they did indeed know this girl from somewhere. But where? And more importantly, who was this girl? At this point, even Aqualad was starting to get both confused and worried. He was starting to get nervous as to just who this girl might turn out to be in light of the way his friends were now looking at her. Yet at the same time, he was also starting to get a feeling that even he had once met this girl at some point before. But just how this was possible was, at that moment anyway, quite beyond him.

All of a sudden, Beast Boy's eyes widened in shock. It was now quite clear that he had finally remembered why this mysterious girl seemed so familiar. At the sight of the look on Beast Boy's face, Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, and Aqualad briefly raised their eyebrows in confusion. Raven was also briefly confused, until she briefly directed a glance at the girl from out of the corner of her eye, and then her eyes widened as she too realized who this girl very likely was. "It can't be," she thought to herself. But already, she had a very bad feeling that her newly formed hunch was correct. For there was only one person that she knew of that matched this girl's appearance that could have possibly triggered such a reaction as the one that Beast Boy had currently demonstrated.

For what seemed like an eternity, Beast Boy continued to stare in shock at the girl. Then, at long last, he spoke. "T . . . Terra?"

 **Oooh, cliffhanger! Dun, dun, dun! So there you have it! The 'mystery civilian girl' has finally received a full confirmation (more or less) of her identity! How will this pan out? Well you'll have to wait until later to find out ^_^. That being said, I also hope you enjoyed the battle! I especially like how the monster turned out (particularly since, believe it or not, it is based off a background monster from one of my sister's old Powerpuff Girls books (the book in question being entitled 'Bubbles Bedazzled')). Again, I hope you enjoyed this chapter (in spite of the Hell long wait for its release), and that you leave a respectable amount of feedback! I would greatly appreciate feedback, even if its constructive criticism (but I forbid flames). Once again, hope you enjoyed!**

 **Coming up next: The Titans, particularly Beast Boy, find themselves in the midst of an unexpected, yet at the same time both dreaded and long awaited reunion with Terra. However, over the course of the whole encounter, it doesn't take long for it to turn out to not entirely be the happy reunion that Beast Boy thought it would be. Sound exciting? I certainly hope so!**


	3. A Familiar Face

**Hey guys! I hope you're ready for yet more Teen Titan-ic awesomeness, because here's yet another chapter! In this chapter, the 'mystery girl' from earlier is finally directly given full confirmation to indeed be Terra. And before long, a reunion that has been both long awaited and heavily dreaded takes place. However, as it soon turns out, this reunion is far from the joyous fairy tale worthy event that any of the Titans, particularly Beast Boy, were hoping for. Sound exciting? Well get reading then! And here's to hoping you enjoy, and leave a good bit of feedback :).**

 **But first, just to remind you guys again, I do not own Teen Titans or any other DC elements. And now, on with the story!**

 **Chapter 2:**

 **A Familiar Face**

The instant Beast Boy said that name, it was as if time stopped and the entire world stood still. The eyes of Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg widened, and they all directed their gaze towards the blonde girl once more. At that point, it didn't take very long at all for the Titans to realize that this girl did indeed look very much like Terra.

"Oh my God," said Robin. Momentarily speechless, the Boy Wonder lifted his now shaking hand to point at Terra. "You're . . . you're really . . . ?"

The girl smiled sadly, nodded her head up and down with her eyes closed, and then lifted her head back up with the sad smile still on her face. "Yes Robin. It's me."

Robin was left completely lost for words. Cyborg, however, not so much. Chuckling, the bionic teenager then said, "Well what do you know. Small world after all."

"A little _too_ small," Raven groaned.

Terra directed a wary glance at Raven. Truth be told, she wasn't entirely sure whether or not Raven was being serious or sarcastic at that particular moment, and the icy glare that Raven still had on her face certainly didn't help. Chuckling nervously, Terra eventually stated, "I'm gonna guess that you are just being your usual self right now if that's ok."

Raven wisely remained silent, opting simply to just raise her eyebrow at the blonde former Titan.

Beast Boy chuckled nervously at the sight of Terra cringing under Raven's withering glare, and he rubbed the back of his head with his left hand before saying, "Eh, well it's nice to know that things are going smoothly."

Then Starfire's eyes widened as she made a connection that the other Titans hadn't yet reached. "Wait a minute, if this is truly Terra, then that means . . ." she turned her head to face Beast Boy, "that you were right all along that day about that girl you thought was Terra that you encountered at that local school!"

Beast Boy briefly looked confused, and then his eyes widened once more as he himself remembered the detail that Starfire had now brought up. "Oh yeah," he said. "That's right!" He then chuckled joyously with his fists clenched and giving himself a double thumbs-up, a happy grin on his face. "For four and a half months I was half convinced that I was correct and half worried that maybe I'd gone crazy! But now I've gotten solid proof! Hallelujah!"

Beast Boy then directed his joyfully grinning face towards Robin, who grimaced in embarrassment, and then scratched the back of his head. "Uh heh, heh," he stated. "It seems you were right Beast Boy."

"Ain't that the truth," Beast Boy stated to himself in an almost reverent tone. He then placed his hands on his hips as if expecting a medal. "This is definitely going on the list of my proudest moments."

"Well congratulations friend Beast Boy," Starfire stated, genuinely feeling happy for her friend.

"Um yeah," Cyborg stated in an awkward tone. "What she said," he continued while pointing his finger at Starfire. Raven, on the other hand, groaned, rolled her eyes, and directed her withering glare at Terra in an almost accusatory fashion. Though why she was currently behaving like this was not something that she was even sure that she herself could truly explain at that moment.

As this was happening, Aqualad stayed silent, finding himself awkwardly thinking to himself as to just what he should say or how he could bring up the things he had to say on this matter now that his friends had helped clear the air and confirm a few important details for him.

Then Beast Boy chuckled, turned around to face Terra once more, his bright-eyed, wide grinned, and likewise overjoyed look of happiness still on his face as he gazed yet again at the girl that he'd now finally gained confirmation of being Terra, his old crush from about three or two years ago who'd gone from friend, to hopeful girlfriend, to traitor, to martyr; and was now finally seemingly reuniting with him and the rest of her friends from her life as a Titan. And even better . . . "You remember everything about me and all that other stuff right?"

Terra nodded in the affirmative.

"Yes!" Beast Boy yelled in victory. He then jumped in the air, jabbing his fist up in the air in a victory gesture. "Woohoo!" he yelled as he jumped and landed. "Double awesome!" He then looked back at Terra once more, now looking truly as if absolutely nothing could spoil his happiness. "When did you get your memories back?!" he eagerly asked, fully expecting Terra to immediately answer in his childish excitement.

However, much to Beast Boy's surprise, Terra didn't provide an immediate response. In fact, as the green changeling continued to gaze expectantly towards the former Titan, she grimaced slightly, made an awkward half-smile, and started wringing her hands before then saying, "Well it's . . . kind of complicated."

"That's fine," Beast Boy stated patiently in an understanding tone, even going so far as to nod his head in an understanding gesture so as to prove that we was completely willing to listen to a complicated story. "I'm willing to brave my way through a bit of complication. Just tell us."

Terra winced, looked awkwardly at her feet for a few minutes, and then directed a half sheepish and half guilty grimace towards Beast Boy. For what seemed like an eternity, Terra remained as she was; and as this happened, Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, and Raven raised their eyebrows as they began to get very suspicious. Aqualad also raised his eyebrow in confusion as to why Terra was taking so long to give an answer to Beast Boy's seemingly quite simple question. Before long, even Beast Boy found himself starting to get rather worried about why Terra still hadn't answered and was even now continuing to act the way she was currently behaving.

Then Terra sighed, briefly hung her head, and then lifted it back up to face Beast Boy once more. Her face now conveyed a very clear look of guilt. "Beast Boy," she then stated, her hands starting to lift up in an almost placatory gesture of surrender. "I know that you're probably going to really hate hearing this, and please don't take this the wrong way . . ."

In that instant, Beast Boy's overjoyed look of happiness completely vanished, and was replaced almost instantaneously with a savage glare of such fury that no one had ever thought possible for him to display towards Terra of all people. "You didn't . . ." Beast Boy growled angrily.

Terra winced. "Beast Boy, I can explain . . ."

"Oh my God," Beast Boy snarled. "You didn't regain your memories; you never lost them at all! All that effort I put into trying to convince you that I was telling the truth to you that day and you knew exactly what I was talking about the whole time! You lied to me!"

"Beast Boy," Terra pleaded, her eyes very clearly showing fear. "Just listen, I can explain."

"Oh you are way past explaining point!" Beast Boy roared. He pointed his finger at her in an accusatory fashion. "I did everything I could think of to get you to admit that I was telling the truth! _EVERYTHING_! All because I thought that you had truly forgotten everything and just needed the right push! But no, you knew the whole time what I was talking about, and you went ahead and lied about it to my face!"

Spreading his arms out upward and to the sides in rage, he then shouted, "I have spent the last four and a half months living a lie! All because you didn't have the decency to tell me the freaking truth!"

As all this was happening, the other four main Titans were gaping at their verdant green friend in stunned silence. Granted, they certainly did agree in their own way with what Beast Boy was saying and did not condone at all what Terra had now admitted to doing. But even so, they had never expected Beast Boy to blow up the way he currently was towards Terra of all people. Aqualad also couldn't help but finding himself grimacing awkwardly, feeling like an unwitting witness to a boxing match. Terra, meanwhile, looked both guilty and on the verge of tears.

"Beast Boy," she begged. "Please, just give me a chance to talk . . ."

Beast Boy raised his hand up to silence her, clearly not in the mood to hear her talk. He then coldly stated, "You know what? Why am I even surprised by this? Knowing your history, I probably should have expected that you were lying about your little memory problem." As he said the last bit, he very deliberately air quoted 'memory problem'.

Terra's heart sank even further than it already had. "Oh why did you have to sink that low?" she thought to herself in despair.

At this point, the other Titans were now starting to feel sorry for Terra. Even Raven found herself mentally feeling a twinge of sympathy for the poor girl. Cyborg walked up to Beast Boy, placed his hand on the changeling's shoulder, and then stated, "Look man . . ."

Beast Boy viciously brushed Cyborg's hand off of his shoulder, jerked around to face his bionic best friend and yelled, "Don't touch me! Just leave me alone!"

Cyborg grimaced, raised his hands up in a placatory gesture. "Beast Boy, I understand that you're upset . . ."

"Upset?!" Beast Boy snapped. "Oh wow! Understatement of the millennium! I am beyond upset right now! What Terra did is an outrage! An outrage!"

"Friend Beast Boy," Starfire stated. "Please calm down."

"Don't tell me to calm down!"

"Beast Boy, please listen. I understand that what Terra did to you was indeed very mean, cruel, and likewise wrong . . ."

"No sugar-honey-iced-tea Sherlock!" Beast Boy growled.

Starfire raised her eyes in confusion. "Forgive me friend," she then stated. "But I did not ask if you wanted such a drink, and my name is not Sherlock."

Robin placed his hand on his girlfriend's shoulder. "I'll explain later," he stated. Then he turned to look at Beast Boy. "Beast Boy, I agree that what Terra did was a very bad thing to do, but you don't have to act so unreasonable."

" _I'M_ ACTING UNREASONABLE!?" Beast Boy howled in an almost scandalized tone. "Oh that's so rich considering how this idiot," he pointed at Terra, "for no reason whatsoever chose to run away from her past like a coward, hide from her friends she betrayed instead of trying to make amends like I thought she would have from how I'd once known her, and lied about her knowledge of it all to my face! Oh that sounds _totally_ reasonable!"

"Beast Boy," Terra shouted desperately. "Please just stop, and let me explain!"

"OR ELSE WHAT?!" Beast Boy roared, whirling around to face her again. "YOU'LL SUFFOCATE ME WITH SAND?! OH WAIT! I FORGOT! YOU DON'T HAVE YOUR POWERS ANYMORE! OH WAIT A MINUTE; MAYBE THAT WAS A LIE TO! IF SO, GO AHEAD! I DARE YOU!"

Terra grimaced, thought to herself with an awkward look on her face. "Well . . . that part was true."

Beast Boy growled. "Prove it."

Terra was about to speak, but then Raven said, "Actually she is telling the truth about that little detail."

Beast Boy directed a glare towards Raven. "And how would you know that?"

Raven directed a glare of her own back at Beast Boy. "Advanced mental capabilities remember?"

"Oh right," Beast Boy stated, genuinely chastened. Then he looked back at Terra, and his angry glare returned. "But that still doesn't change the fact that what you did was cruel, selfish, and uncalled for! What got into you that day!? I thought you were better than that!"

Terra sighed, and hung her head in shame. "I regret what I did that day. Truly I do." She then looked back up to face Beast Boy. "But like you said, I was afraid."

"Tell me something I don't know," Beast Boy grumbled sarcastically.

Ignoring Beast Boy, Terra continued, "Granted, I had just woken up from what I had first thought to be a deep sleep. And for a brief bit of time, I actually _did_ have to struggle to remember everything that had happened. But then it all came back to me as I was walking through the tunnels leading back up to the surface, and believe me, I almost vomited and ran back down the tunnel screaming like a baby."

Beast Boy smirked smugly at the description. "Now that would have been funny to watch," he thought to himself.

"But in the end, I chose to just suck it up, be brave, and continue all the way to the surface. And when I reached that area, I saw a bunch of people acting all confused and disoriented. In fact, they almost seemed to be acting the exact same way that I had acted immediately after being restored from my own time as a stone statue."

At the sound of this, Robin and Raven looked each other in the eyes. They both could tell that this last detail could potentially be a clue as to how Terra had managed to get restored to life. They looked back at Terra. "Terra," Robin asked. "Do you remember the exact date you woke up from your time as a statue?"

Terra thought to herself. "Um, I can't fully remember, but I think it might have been around November 4 or so last year?"

At the sound of this, Cyborg managed to recognize the same significance that Robin and Raven had already latched onto. "That's the same day that we finally defeated Trigon and the end of the world was averted."

Beast Boy raised his eyebrow at his best friend. "I thought that was November 3rd."

"The actual world ending did occur on November 3rd last year," Robin admitted. He then looked directly at the changeling. "But you forget, Trigon didn't actually rise until around 11:00 pm that day thanks to our efforts at keeping him from accessing Raven. And by the time he was finally defeated and the world was restored, it was 11:00 am the next day."

Beast Boy thought to himself, seemingly doing the math in his head. "Oh yeah," he then stated. "I do remember that now."

"And thus it is now obvious how Terra managed to get reverted back to life from her stone statue state," Raven stated. "Somehow or other, when Trigon's defeat and the world's subsequent restoration reverted all the unprotected inhabitants to their state from before Trigon's presence turned them to stone, the same magic must have managed to set Terra free from her time as a stone statue as well."

Terra, however, no looked quite confused. "Um, I'm glad to have a slight idea now as to how I'm no longer a statue, but could someone please fill me in on this end of the world business? And who the heck is Trigon?"

"THAT'S NEED TO KNOW INFORMATION AND YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW!"

At the sound of this savage roar from Beast Boy, Terra, Aqualad, and the other founding Titans reared back in shock. Even Raven looked visibly stunned at Beast Boy's violent putting down of Terra having any need to be trusted with the information she'd asked for. In the past, she had a feeling that Beast Boy would have probably been all too eager to give his old crush all the details to the point of long windedly rambling. Now, however, it seemed that something about this incident had now truly made Beast Boy severely angry with the blonde geomancer.

Terra's shocked expression then turned to an angry glare. "I WAS JUST ASKING A SIMPLE QUESTION!"

"AND LIKE I JUST SAID, YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW THE ANSWER!"

"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!"

"MY PROBLEM!? I SHOULD BE ASKING WHAT _YOUR_ PROBLEM IS BUDDY! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO'S DONE NOTHING BUT LIE SINCE DAY 1 OF THE TIME FOLLOWING THE DAY YOU FIRST JOINED THIS FRIGGING TEAM! HECK, ALL YOU EVER DO ANYMORE THESE DAYS IS LIE!"

Terra looked as if she were about to retort, but Robin stepped between the two arguing teens. "I believe you had a story to resume?" he then said to Terra while directing a glare towards Beast Boy out of the corner of his eyes. Beast Boy stuck his tongue out at Robin, but otherwise followed through with his leader's unspoken request to back off and let Terra talk.

Terra grumbled, directed a final glare towards Beast Boy, and then took a deep breath, and looked back at Robin. "Like I said, all the other people I saw were acting like they had just recently been set free from stone petrification, and it was easy enough for me to walk amongst them without drawing too much attention. No one even managed to recognize the suit I was still wearing."

"Oh," Cyborg stated raising his hand.

"Yes Cyborg," Terra stated.

"Um about that suit," Cyborg asked. "Wasn't that suit like designed so that it was directly connected to your nervous system?"

"Yes . . ." Terra stated hesitantly, clearly surprised that Cyborg was aware of this detail in spite of none of the Titans having ever been present when Slade himself had revealed this information to her. "How did you know that?"

"The implants and their connections to the suit showed up in a scan I made on your statue form," Cyborg explained. "But needless to say, you could say that what I'm asking is . . ."

"How I managed to take if off?" Terra stated. The Titans nodded. Even Beast Boy looked genuinely curious as to how this action had proven possible. "Well, I honestly don't truly know. My best guesses are that either they eroded away during my time as a statue, or they were eradicated by the same power that freed me from my petrification. But regardless, I first found out that I was no longer physically incapable of taking it off when I happened to accidentally trip on a log, and the impact caused one of the gloves to go flying off my hand. After that, it really didn't take long to realize that I was quite literally more or less free from my past with Slade, and so I took it off . . . but only after first snatching up an abandoned picnic towel to use as a cloak and then buying some regular clothes that would fit me."

Terra took a deep breath, exhaled, and then continued. "After that, I spent a few months just drifting along here and there, getting whatever odd job I could get to save up money. Eventually, I managed to get enough money to really get my life on track, and so I enrolled myself at Murakami High School, found a permanent job at a local diner, and then moved into an apartment room where I live alone. And for the last few months since, I've just been living a more or less normal life."

Then Terra looked down at the sand beneath her feet. "As for my powers . . . well . . . I didn't find that out until at one point I tried to use them to remove a bunch of rocks and other earth-based debris from an area I'd chosen to use as a campsite the day after I woke up from my time as a statue and turned out unable to get my powers to activate." She looked back up at the five main Titans. "And over the course of all these months, I truly had thought that I'd managed to finally put my entire past behind me. But evidently, it seems that my old life just isn't entirely all that willing to let go of me just yet."

Robin and the other Titans thought to themselves, considering all that Terra had now said, and then nodded in understanding. Or more accurately, all but one of them nodded in understanding. Beast Boy, now free to take a turn at speaking, was still not finished with what he had to say. "Well it's nice to know all that's happened since that day Terra," he then stated before glaring at her once more. "BUT WHY DID YOU LIE TO ME ABOUT IT WHEN I TALKED TO YOU ABOUT IT FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS AGO!? WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE TOLD ME ALL THAT STUFF BACK THEN!?"

Terra sighed. "Like I said Beast Boy, I was still too greatly haunted by my past, and I wanted to move on, put it all behind me, and just live a normal life free from all that."

"YOU COULD HAVE TOLD ME THAT DIRECTLY!" Beast Boy howled.

"Oh please," Terra grumbled, clearly starting to get irritated at Beast Boy once more. "If I'd told you the truth, you would have insisted on trying to get me to rejoin the team, and then you would have never left me alone!"

"Oh yes I would have left you alone!" Beast Boy yelled. "Honestly Terra! All you would have had to do was just tell me all that stuff directly, and that you legit didn't want to have anything to do with that life anymore! Sure it would have taken a while for me to accept it, but in the end, I would have respected your wishes! I'm nice like that!"

"This from the guy . . ." Terra hissed.

"That wasn't even his fault Terra!"

Terra whipped her head around to face Robin, shock written on her face. The other Titans looked at Robin as well. Even Aqualad looked genuinely interested as he turned his own gaze towards Robin.

Robin sighed, his eyes closed, and his fists clenched. Then he took a deep breath, exhaled, and stared straight at Terra. "Yes Terra, you heard correctly. And yes, I do know what you're talking about. You still think that Beast Boy directly told me about how you were originally unable to properly control your powers. That incident may have happened three years ago, but I still remember it perfectly."

Robin then leaned forward. "And yes, I'm finally going to go ahead and tell you a very important truth about that incident that I should have told you the day after you finally became an official member of this team. Beast Boy never told me a thing about that. And no, he didn't tell anyone else either. I figured it out myself."

For what seemed like an eternity, Terra gaped at Robin in shock. "But . . . but how? I mean, I never said anything about it, and Beast Boy was the only person I told . . ."

"You didn't have to say anything," Robin stated. "Nobody did. I'm a detective Terra, and all the necessary clues were there. All I needed to do was look at them the right way." He then pointed at Beast Boy. "But needless to say, he had nothing to do with my finding out about that. My becoming aware of that 'at-the-time' secret and letting the others know about it is entirely my fault. That blood is entirely on my hands alone. If there's anyone you should still be angry at over that matter, it's me."

Robin then hung his head. "And if that mistake of mine was in the end directly responsible for you joining forces with Slade, then I'm sorry. If I had known that that information was a personal secret of yours at the time, I would have kept my mouth shut about it." He looked back up at Terra. "But what's done is done, and I'm sorry that you had to wait this long to finally become aware of the full truth. But don't . . . and I mean don't . . . blame Beast Boy for my crimes."

Terra was stunned; completely lost for words. "But . . . why didn't you tell me about that before?"

"I didn't think I would have to," Robin replied. He sighed. "I thought that you had managed to forgive Beast Boy and the rest of us for that incident, and since you became an official member of the team not too long after we'd managed to stop Slade from sinking the Tower, I guess that the overall mood that came from that success must have caused me to get careless. But nonetheless, under other circumstances, I would have told you." Then his face took on a very solemn and weary look. "And the only reasons I'm telling you now are A: the fact that you have now confirmed that you indeed did still blame him for my figuring out that knowledge, and B: the fact that right now, I'm currently at a point in my life in which I'd prefer to get as much off my chest as possible." At the sound of these last words, the other four founding Titans looked each other in the eyes. It was clear that Robin was now thinking about the matter of his deal from two months prior.

Robin then pointed at Terra. "And while I do not in any way condone Beast Boy's current behavior over this matter, he's not entirely in the wrong any more than he is responsible for my finding out about your former inability to control your powers. If there's anything about this situation that he's right about, it's that you should have told him the truth, and all of it. Yes, it would have been painful for him if you had been completely honest with him and basically overtime forced him to leave you out of our lives in such a way. But even then, that would have been far kinder of you to do then to lie to his face, force him to live a lie, and keep him and the rest of us forever in the dark about a truth that you were too scared to face."

For several minutes after this, Terra was completely speechless. Then she gulped, and hung her head, clearly ashamed of her actions.

"Ok then . . . ?"

Terra and the Titans all looked right at Aqualad, who was now still standing awkwardly nearby, rubbing his hand across the back of his head. "Well, I will admit, it was really nice hearing all that, and I'm certainly glad that some of the more important details I needed to ask about are out of the way but . . ."

Terra, seemingly getting a feeling about what Aqualad was about to ask, nodded her head. "Yes Aqualad," she replied. "I remember you as well."

At the sound of this, the five main Titans raised their eyebrows, clearly confused as to what Terra was talking about. Beast Boy, however, clearly looked far more suspicious and distrustful of this matter than his four friends did. "Hold it right there . . . you guys know each other?"

Terra chuckled nervously, clasped her hands together so that her fingers intertwined, and responded nervously, "Yes. We do."

At the sound of this, Beast Boy directed his suspicion-filled glare towards Aqualad. "Um," the Atlantean stated, clearly unsure of what he was supposed to say at this time. "What she said," he eventually responded.

Beast Boy looked back at Terra. "And how would that be possible?" the changeling then asked. "The other Titans and I were led to believe that you two had never met each other before."

"Well actually," Terra began, now suddenly finding something of great interest to look at about the sand she was standing on once more. "I have met him before. In fact, we actually spent quite a lot of time together during my time as a Titan."

Upon hearing this, Beast Boy looked as if he were about to blow a gasket until Robin abruptly asked, "When did this happen?"

Beast Boy glared at Robin, clearly not happy about his leader's asking the next logical question for him, but wisely remained silent.

Terra turned around to face Robin, clearly relieved that Beast Boy hadn't been the one who'd asked her the question. "We first met each other a week after I joined the team."

"It was three days after the Master of Games incident to be more precise," Aqualad chimed in.

This was news to the five main Titans, and their eyes widened in surprise. "You never mentioned this before," Robin stated.

"So I did," Aqualad admitted.

"Now that I think about it," Terra then stated, "we actually hung out together on the shore outside the tower every Wednesday for a good five months or so after we first met each other."

"YOU WHAT?!" Beast Boy shrieked looking straight at Terra. Terra grimaced upon hearing this, for now yet another secret of hers had now gotten aired out to Beast Boy at an inopportune moment.

The sight of Terra's guiltily grimacing face was all the proof Beast Boy needed. "Oh geez Terra," he then hissed spitefully. "Is there anything else I should know?!"

At that point, Robin decided that it was time for him to intervene again so as to prevent Beast Boy from blowing a gasket. "So Aqualad," he then stated. "Perhaps you could go ahead and tell us about your first time meeting Terra? I mean, now is probably as good a time as any."

The Atlantean nodded, clearly in agreement, and then stared intently at his five friends. "Like I said, it was three days after our encounter with the Master of Games, and I had decided that it would possibly be a good idea for me to drop by to check on you guys," he gestured to indicate Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy, "to see if you were ok after what had happened over the course of that encounter."

Aqualad looked towards Terra out of the corner of his eyes. "When I arrived at the island where the tower was, it was awkwardly about 11:00 at night or so, and I happened to see Terra hear standing nearby a small ledge not too far away from me right as I was about to try to walk up the path towards the front door. Then she sat down, and I thought it wouldn't hurt for me to make my presence known to her and talk to her. I mean, it was the first time I'd met her and I was curious as to what she was doing at Titans Tower."

"I still remember how you nearly gave me a heart attack when I finally noticed you in the area," Terra then stated.

Aqualad chuckled nervously. "Uh yeah, again I am sorry about that." He then looked back at the other Titans. "Well anyway, after a brief standoff, we both managed to calm down sufficiently enough to introduce ourselves and give us a sufficient opportunity for us both to fill in the blanks."

Aqualad then looked back at Terra, a look on his face that silently asked her to help him finish the explanation. "So we did," Terra then stated. "And over the course of the conversation that followed, we managed to learn quite a lot about each other."

"Like what?" Starfire asked in curiosity.

"Well," Terra stated. "Aside from our names and our status among the ranks of this team, we told each other many things about ourselves."

"Oh that is _so_ helpful," Raven droned, rolling her eyes.

"I have to agree with Raven," Robin stated. "I think you might need to be a bit more specific in answering that question."

For a brief few seconds, Terra clasped her hands together in a nervous gesture. "Well, there was a lot of stuff we talked about that's kind of personal."

"Just how personal?" Beast Boy asked in an almost growling tone.

"Well for one," Aqualad then stated. "She did tell me a very interesting fact about how her father happens to be the king of Markovia and. . ."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the phone!" Beast Boy howled. He then stared incredulously at Terra. "Your father's a freaking KING?!"

Terra grimaced, glanced awkwardly to the side, and then said, "Well . . ."

"Oh good Godfrey," Beast Boy growled. "Is there _anything_ you told _him_ ," he pointed at Aqualad, "that you didn't keep a secret from us?!"

For a brief moment, Terra hesitated, then seemed to think as to whether or not to answer, clearly conflicted.

"You know what?" Beast Boy then said with his hand lifted up and his head turned away from Terra. "Don't even answer that. I have a feeling I don't even want to know."

Terra sighed heavily in both irritation and sadness upon hearing this. "Is there anything I can do or say now that won't upset him?" she thought to herself.

At that point, Robin had decided that this whole tableau had gone on long enough, and he said, "Well Terra, I can definitely say that we all have a lot to catch up on." As he said the last bit, the Boy Wonder directed a meaningful look towards Beast Boy, who responded with a withering glare. "But right now," Robin continued, "I believe there's something that Aqualad needed to say that I think we've had him put off long enough." He looked at Aqualad, silently signaling him to start talking.

Aqualad nodded, and Terra and the Titans all directed their attention towards him. Even Beast Boy directed his attention towards the Atlantean, genuinely just as interested in figuring out the reason behind Aqualad's unexpected visit as his teammates were.

The Atlantean took a deep breath, exhaled, and then said, "Well guys, I'm sure that this probably won't come as much of a surprise in light of all that's just now happened here. But needless to say, the other members of Titans East are in trouble."

 **And just like that, another chapter over! I hope you all enjoyed this and that you leave a respectable number of reviews! And while I'm at it, yes, I am indeed a proud member of the AquaTerra shipping fandom. In fact, a bunch of elements for Aqualad and Terra's first meeting in the universe of this series were borrowed from a story written by the author Raven'sFavoriteEmotion. And on that note, again, I hope you all enjoyed!**

 **Coming up Next: The reason behind Aqualad's unexpected visit to Jump City is finally revealed in full. And soon after that, the Titans are all for heading back to Steel City with Aqualad to help out Titans East, but not without first making a very important decision regarding Terra.**


	4. Friends in Need

**Hey there everybody! I am SO sorry that you've all had to wait so ungodly long for this new chapter. Honest to God, I thought it would take far less time to finish writing this then it actually did. Again, I am sorry for the wait. Hopefully, this new chapter will be sufficient recompense for the Hell long wait I put you guys through. In this chapter, the Titans finally learn the full details on the reasons behind Aqualad's unexpected visit to Jump City and apparent need for their help. And soon after this information comes to light, it isn't long before the Titans, plus Aqualad, are heading right back to Steel City, but not without first making a very important decision regarding Terra. And on that note, here's to hoping you enjoy this new chapter and that you leave a healthy batch of reviews!**

 **A/N: But first, just to give you a reminder, I do not own Teen Titans (or the DC universe, period). Ok then, now that that's out of my system, ONWARD WITH THE FIC!**

 **Chapter 3:**

 **Friends in Need**

The instant Aqualad said those last two words, the five main Titans promptly leaned forward. "What happened?!" they all yelled at once.

Aqualad winced slightly, raised his hands up as if trying to calm his friends down, and then said, "Easy now, just give me a second and I'll tell you guys all about it."

The Titans, understanding their Atlantean friend's need for personal space and time to collect himself, took three steps back to give their friend breathing room.

It was around this time that Terra asked, "What exactly is Titans East?"

Beast Boy looked as if about to shout at Terra again and label the answer to that question as need to know information. But then Robin beat him to the punch by stating calmly to Terra, "It's an ancillary sister division of the Team we have in Steel City down in Pennsylvania. It was formed the year after you turned to stone."

"YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO TELL HER THAT!" Beast Boy howled.

"SINCE WHEN!?" Robin growled. "I'M THE LEADER! I MAKE THE IMPORTANT DECISIONS, NOT YOU!"

"SHE'S A TRAITOR!"

"HER PAST HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS MATTER! NOW CALM DOWN!"

"WHY DON'T YOU MAKE ME?!"

"ENOUGH!"

Robin and Beast Boy turned their heads just in time to see a very pissed off red-eyed Raven standing right nearby. At first, Beast Boy was about to angrily yell at Raven to stay out of his business, but then Raven snarled viciously at him, "I mean it Beast Boy. I understand that you're angry, but that is no excuse for the atrocious way you are now behaving. You are acting like a child, and its Robin's duty to decide how to treat these situations, not yours. Now settle down and behave yourself before I send you straight to Nevermore, right inside Rage's domain!"

For a few seconds, Beast Boy was stunned silent. But then he gulped, hung his head in clear shame, and stepped back a couple inches. "You're right," he whimpered. "I'm sorry."

Raven nodded, still feeling slightly angry, but her eyes now back to normal, and she turned her head to Robin in a silent gesture for him to continue.

The Titans' leader nodded, and he looked back at Terra before saying, "As Aqualad conveniently revealed, he himself is one of the 5 members of that team. As for the other members, there's Speedy, Bumblebee, Mas, and Menos. Bumblebee is the leader, and she has insect-like wings on her back that allow her to fly, and she can also shrink herself to the size of a fly, and can also fire electricity from these two harp-shaped objects she tends to carry around with her."

"I'm presuming those are her equivalent of a bee sting," Terra stated.

"Correct," Robin confirmed. "And she also used to work for the H.I.V.E. as a double agent."

"Isn't that the school that that techno-nerd midget, pink haired witch, and the giant named after that prehistoric elephant worked for?"

"Correct again," Robin stated. "And now for Mas and Menos, they are twin brothers, and at this time, currently 10 years old. The only way to tell them apart is by some distinctive decorative markings on their uniforms. They also only speak Spanish, and they can move at extremely fast speeds, but only if they're touching each other in some form or other.

"Now as for Speedy, don't let his hero name fool you. He's not a super speedster. He is however, a fantastic archer, and he always carries a longbow and a quiver full of a vast variety of arrows with him wherever he goes."

Terra thought to herself about the 411 she'd just now received. "Interesting," she then said. "I actually think I'd like to meet them now."

"Well that will probably have to wait a while," Aqualad then stated. "Because right now, they really badly need help." Within seconds, the Titans all directed their attention back to Aqualad, and so did Terra. As Terra and the Titans continued to patiently wait and direct their gaze at Aqualad, the Atlantean took a deep breath, exhaled, and then stated, "It all started yesterday, right as we were all having lunch at our tower."

. . . . .

(Flashback: The previous day, at Titans Tower East)

"Would you hurry up!?" Speedy impatiently howled from his seat at the table in the Titans East Tower's kitchen. "I'm starving!"

"Y nuestra comida se esta enfriando!" Mas and Menos yelled in an almost despairing tone.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Aqualad snapped in mild irritation as he hurried over to join his friends at the table, his plate of newly reheated leftover takeout Chicken Teriyaki gripped tightly in his hands and very clearly standing out among the servings of clam dip and fish tacos that were on the plates of the other four Titans East members. "Just hold your horses for a second," he finished as he proceeded to reach the table, place his plate emphatically down at the area he would be sitting at, and then sit down.

Bumblebee nodded her head at the sight of Aqualad now at his place, a small smile on her face. "Alright boys, now that we're all here and ready, you are now free to start eating, just like I promised."

"Hurra!" Mas and Menos yelled joyously before promptly beginning to lay into their food ravenously like pigs. Speedy on the other hand, proceeded simply to take an almost inhumanly large bite out of the first of his fish tacos. Bumblebee simply chuckled, and started calmly dining on her own food. Aqualad, however, sighed, and rolled his eyes at his male peers' rather horrid current table manners before then proceeding to start slowly eating his food.

Bumblebee simply chuckled to herself upon seeing the rather childish way that the three ginger haired boys were behaving in regard to their lunch, and then said jokingly, "Geeze Louise, no need to get that excited over just a meal."

"Esto no es sólo una comida," said Mas.

"Es una bendicion del Cielo," Menos stated dreamily in agreement.

"Oh good grief," said Aqualad. "Come on guys, you don't need to be that dramatic about having to accommodate for my dietary needs."

"Well it would be a whole lot easier for us if you weren't always such a picky eater," Speedy stated bluntly. He turned his head to face the dark haired Atlantean with a facial expression that looked half scowl and half smirk on his face. "Why can't you just go ahead and just eat fish tacos and clam dip like the rest of us? Heck, what is your problem with seafood period?"

"Dude," Aqualad yelled, "I'm from Atlantis remember? These guys could have been friends of mine!"

"Oh please," said Speedy. "You're starting to sound like Beast Boy."

"Maybe Beast Boy has a point you jerk!"

"Maybe you should grow a pair, and eat some damn fish!"

"Asshole!" Aqualad yelled.

"Dumbass!" Speedy retorted.

"Now, now, now," Bumblebee stated, extending her hands out to her sides and on the shoulders of her two pissed off teen male friends in an effort to make peace. "No need to call each other names. We all have our preferences."

"Oh come on!" Speedy grumbled. "How can anyone _not_ like fish!? It's unnatural!"

"There are hundreds of herbivorous animals on land that don't eat fish, let alone any meat!" Aqualad shouted. "Heck, there are even meat eating animals that don't eat fish. What makes me any different from them!?"

"You're a human!" Speedy shouted. "You're not supposed to be particular about what kind of food you eat!"

"Need I remind you, _again_ , that I'm from Atlantis?" Aqualad asked pointedly. "It's basically considered cannibalism for an Atlantean to eat a fish!"

"Sharks eat fish all the time!" Speedy countered.

"Yeah well, I'm not a shark!" Aqualad countered back.

"And you're not in Atlantis right now!" Speedy yelled. "Honestly man, what your fellow Atlanteans don't know won't hurt them, and just one fish won't kill you."

"Oh there are plenty of fish capable of killing thank you very much," Aqualad retorted.

Speedy groaned. "I meant it wouldn't kill you to just eat one fish."

"Well actually I'd have a relatively high chance of dying from poisoning if I ate a Fugu fish," Aqualad then stated.

Speedy placed his hands down on his plate with his fish taco still in them, a withering glare directed at the Atlantean. "That's not the point. Come on, at least just try one."

"And again, I refuse," Aqualad snapped.

"Chicos," said Mas and Menos. "Que nos esta dando un dolor de cabeza."

"I have to agree with them," said Bumbleebee. "Could you please just let it go for a few minutes and let us all eat in peace? Is it really that much to ask?"

The two arguing teenage boys sighed, hung their heads, and then turned their heads to face their fearless leader.

"If you say so," they then said in unison before turning their heads back to their food and resuming their dining.

For the next few minutes, Titans East continued to eat without interruption. And when they had all finally finished eating, Bumblebee was the first to get up from her seat and transfer her dishes over to where the sink and dishwasher were located. As she proceeded to turn on the sink and start scrubbing her dishes, she then said, "There, now wasn't that so much better than spending the entire meal arguing?"

Speedy snorted in an almost derisive tone. "We never would have argued this time in the first place if Aqualad had just had the guts to eat a damn fish!"

"Give it a rest already," Aqualad grumbled, clearly not wanting to be dragged into another argument over this matter at that moment.

"I'm serious Aqualad," said Speedy. "I mean come on! Why do you always have to make such a big deal out of it? It's not that hard!"

"It's called empathy Speedy," Aqualad snapped. "Something that you have now very clearly demonstrated to have absolutely no understanding of whatsoever."

"Oh I have plenty of empathy," Speedy growled. "How about I show you how empathetic I can be by shoving my quiver up your . . ."

"ENOUGH!"

In a flash, Speedy and Aqualad turned their heads to face Bumblebee, both of them clearly quite stunned by the unexpected outburst.

Bumblebee took a deep breath, exhaled in an almost dramatic fashion, clearly exasperated, and then directed a stern glare towards the two teen boys. "That's it, I've had enough of all your crap right now!"

The two teen boys gulped, clearly unnerved by Bumblebee's apparent newfound anger. Then Speedy looked over towards Aqualad and said, "Yeah, you heard her, she's done with your crap!"

"That applies to you as well!" Bumblebee roared, her left finger pointed at the ginger haired archer. "In fact, it actually applies to _you_ even more than it does to Aqualad!"

For a brief moment, Speedy was rendered speechless by what Bumblebee had just said. Then he shook his head as if to clear his thoughts, his eyes closed as he did so. He eventually looked back up at Bumblebee with his eyes open, yet conveying a slightly nervous look at the same time. "I have no idea what you are talking about . . ."

"Cut the crap Speedy," Bumblebee snarled irritably. "You're not fooling anybody!"

She then pointed at Speedy in an almost accusatory fashion. "Ever since we returned here from Jump City two months ago, you and Aqualad have been arguing and squabbling nonstop; and by that, I mean even more so than usual!"

"Si," said the two speedster twins. "Apenas la semana pasada, se discutieron al menos 9 a 10 veces al día. Usted nunca ha argumentado que muchas veces en un solo día antes!"

"Exactly," said Bumblebee. "Seriously you two, what's going on here? I mean come on, I can understand it whenever you two argue every once in a while. But nowadays, it's like all you ever do anymore is argue."

"Si," stated Mas. He then looked at Speedy. "Sabes cuánto tiempo ha pasado desde la última vez que jugamos Phantom Racer juntos?"

Speedy was left momentarily speechless upon hearing this question. He'd completely forgotten about how often he and the twins had used to play video games together at least once or twice every day without fail before now. Of course, he didn't fully understand what the two twins had said, but the name of the video game was all he'd needed to hear to understand what they'd been talking about in this particular case. "Umm . . ."

"Un mes!" Mas yelled. "Un mes te digo! Un mes!"

"Ciertamente!" Menos squeaked in agreement. "Y Aqualad!" He then turned around to face the Atlantean, his brother doing the same seconds later. "Qué pasa con nuestro ritual diario de observación de Dora la Exploradora todas las mañanas? No es tan divertido de ver sin ti allí viendo con nosotros."

Aqualad gulped upon hearing this, and he hung his head, now clearly feeling ashamed. "Well I . . ." he began.

"And that's not all," said Bumblebee. She then looked back at Speedy. "Not only are you two arguing more often, but you're also arguing now over some of the most minor things that previously never served as any reason for argument. Last week for instance, you two got into a fight over whether or not one of you was more deserving to win the battle you had in that Super Smash Bros video game . . ."

"HE TOTALLY CHEATED!" Speedy yelled as he pointed his finger accusingly at Aqualad.

"Yesterday," Bumblebee continued, seemingly ignoring the irritated archer, "you and Aqualad nearly tore apart the whole living room arguing over whose bed had a softer mattress."

"His bed is as hard as a rock and you know it!" Aqualad yelled indignantly.

"Heck," Bumblebee then shouted. "You can't even agree on which bathroom to use in this tower anymore!"

"Hey that only happened once!" Speedy shouted.

"And finally," Bumblebee stated, lifting her finger as if to signal that there were to be no interruptions. "You Speedy," she then stated, "are almost always the instigator nowadays. In the past, I was perfectly happy with both you and Aqualad having equal opportunity for being the perpetrator responsible for setting your arguments in motion. But for the last few months, practically every argument has been started solely by you."

"Si," stated the two twins in agreement. "Apenas el mes pasado que instigado un argumento diez veces seguidas. Eso es un registro completamente nuevo para usted." Mas added.

"I hate to say this," Aqualad admitted before looking at Speedy and stating, "But they do have a point."

"Indeed," said Bumblebee. She then looked back at Speedy. "And on that note, what is it with you these days that makes it so seemingly impossible for you not to pick a fight with Aqualad now?"

Speedy tensed up at the slightly insulting undertones within Bumblebee's statement. "Now you listen here you little. . ." he began.

"You see?! My point exactly!" Bumblebee yelled. "And I want to know why you can't avoid picking fights at times in which they aren't necessary anymore! Go ahead! Tell us why!"

For a brief moment, as the other members of Titans East looked on, Speedy tensed up ominously, gritting his teeth and snarling angrily, clearly on the verge of blowing up in anger. "Why you . . ." he then managed to growl.

But then he abruptly paused again, seemingly having a mental struggle, and then abruptly relaxed in position, his shoulders slumping and his head hanging downwards. The archer sighed. "You're right, the way I've been behaving lately is uncalled for, and I really had no right to act so atrociously."

He turned his head to face the windows facing outside the tower. "And to be honest, the only reason I actually have even felt the need period to openly work to start arguments and raise chaos around here is, hypocritically enough, because of how peaceful it's been around here lately."

The other members of Titans East promptly raised their eyebrows in confusion upon hearing this. "Isn't the fact that it's been so peaceful here lately supposed to be a good thing?" Bumblebee asked. "I mean; we are supposed to maintain peace here in Steel City as its local heroes after all."

"I know that," said Speedy. "But the thing is, well, I don't know why but, I'm starting to think that this peace is starting to last a little _too_ long." He turned around to face his friends. "Do you have any idea how long it's been since we faced any major-league supervillain level trouble? Ever since our experiences with the Brotherhood, all we've ever done any more these days is either wipe the floor with common criminals or sit around with our fingers up our backsides."

Speedy turned around to face the windows once more. "And it's just, I'm starting to get bored with it all. I just wish that, at least once, we could at least get called to take care of trouble that's even a tiny bit more exciting than what we've been getting lately."

He sighed, hung his head, and then looked back at his friends yet again before continuing, "And I guess I just got so desperate to find a way to entertain myself and let out my frustration on the matter that I decided to just pick fights with Aqualad at every opportunity I could think of just so that I wouldn't have to feel so bored to tears all the time over the lack of action." He lifted his head back up. "And yes, I know that it was very mean spirited of me to blow off steam over this matter the way that I did, but I just couldn't help myself, and I didn't know what else to do." He hung his head once more. "But nonetheless, I am sorry."

At that moment, Bumblebee felt pity for Speedy. Granted, as the ginger haired archer had admitted, his behavior had been very uncalled for. But at the same time, she herself had a tiny part of her that was thoroughly missing the days when there was more exciting action to take part in that had almost been basically a daily occurrence before the defeat of the Brotherhood of Evil. Secretly, she herself was actually wishing at some point for something more exciting than a common criminal to rear its ugly head. But nonetheless, she was grateful for the extended peace, though not above feeling sympathy for fellow heroes who were finding it hard to handle.

She placed a hand on Speedy's shoulder, and he briefly tensed up in surprise before looking up towards the fearless leader of Titans East. With an understanding look on her face, Bumblebee stated, "I accept your apology, and I understand what you mean. Heck, I myself have had a little trouble of my own at times in getting used to so much peace around here. But nonetheless, I'm not going to wish it all away that quickly, because you never know when you will ever get another time of peace once the previous one is over, and I'd prefer to enjoy our times of peace for as long as possible while we still have them. And I am all for helping you cope with how long this one is currently lasting."

Speedy sighed, nodded his head, and then said, "I guess you're right, and I can certainly admit that I would greatly appreciate it if really anyone were to help me cope with this matter in less mean spirited ways." He then looked straight up at Bumblebee, and with a slight smirk, he then stated in a light hearted attempt at making a joke, "But still, you gotta admit, you'd probably be almost glad if a supervillain just happened to abruptly show up right this very moment right?" Unfortunately, right after Speedy said this, all five members of Titans East promptly found themselves wishing that Speedy hadn't said that when they suddenly felt the ground start violently shaking beneath their feet.

. . . . .

For what seemed like an eternity, the ground continued to shake. Then, just as abruptly as it had begun, the shaking stopped. But then, out of the blue, the ground started shaking again. Then it stopped. And then it started shaking for a 3rd time. And in the midst of the 3rd apparent earthquake, Titans East managed to get a strong enough footing to look towards the front window of the common room in time to see what seemed to be a large craggy pillar of stones rise out of the ground and come to a stop right in front of the window, which had managed to crack slightly over the course of the miniature earthquakes. However, what surprised Titans East the most was how there appeared to a very human shaped silhouette standing on top with one foot in front of the other with a bent leg, and its hands clenched into fists placed upon its hips.

Then the dust cleared, and Titans East was able to get a clear look at the figure standing atop the pillar of earth. Standing right there was a tall young man who looked to be somewhere in his early 20s dressed in an orange, yellow, and red-brown outfit clearly designed to serve as a costume for either a superhero or supervillain, complete with a mask resembling goggles that connected to his suit's neckline and covered up the area around his eyes. And stylized right on the chest area of his suit, was a large 'GF'.

As the Titans East members continued to stare in shock at the unexpected intruder, the masked man smirked smugly at the prepubescent heroes. "Well, well, well," he then stated as he reached up with his right hand and brushed it through his reddish brown hair. "I have to admit; you certainly don't look the part for a group of heroes worthy of serving as a sister division for the Teen Titans of all people. But of course, they always say that looks can be deceiving."

At the sound of this, Bumblebee glared at the intruder, drew out her stingers, and growled, "We may not look it, but we're perfectly competent heroes just as much as the original Titans."

"Yeah," Speedy snarled. "And believe me, you have no idea how hard we had to work just to prove that to the people of Jump City."

"You got that right," Aqualad growled, before he himself then turned his head to face the intruder. "And for that matter, I wouldn't be too quick to judge us right now! You don't know us!"

"Si!" Mas and Menos shouted. "Y no te conocemos!"

At the sound of that last bit, the three teenage members of Titans East turned their heads to direct a shared 'seriously?' look at the two 10-year olds. At the sight of this, it didn't take very long for the two twins to realize how very unhelpful that last comment they'd made had been in upholding their team's image. "Vaya," said Mas.

"No ayudar," Menos agreed.

"Nos callaremos ahora," both twins stated in unison.

The three teenage members of Titans East turned their heads to face the intruder once more, who was now smirking even more smugly. "Well I suppose you do have a point," he then admitted. "I don't know you, and you don't know me." He lifted up his right hand with his index finger raised as if about to make a point. "And if you wish to know my ordinary birth name, then that is something that is not of any concern to ones such as you.

"However," he then continued, "I can give you the name that I am commonly known by. And people call me . . ." he paused, lifted his left foot, and then stomped it down hard on the top of the rocky pillar he was standing on, causing yet another miniature earthquake while simultaneously shouting, "GEO-FORCE!"

Even as Titans East continued desperately trying to maintain balance in the midst of this newly summoned miniature earthquake, Speedy managed to direct a silent snarling glare towards the geokinetic. "For a name like that, he certainly has the appropriate powers," he thought to himself.

When the small earthquake finally stopped, Titans East barely even had enough time to regain their balance before Geo-Force shouted, "And since it is clear that you want a battle, then it is a battle you shall get!"

In a flash, Geo-Force lifted up his hands, a large mass of boulders rising up into the air in direct synchronization with the movement, and then flicked them forward. The boulders rocketed straight towards the windows, shattering them completely, and hurtled straight towards Titans East.

Bumblebee's eyes widened, and she had just enough time to yell, "Move!" before she and the other members of Titans East were forced to swoop off in random directions to avoid getting hit point blank by the volley of boulders, which proceeded to fly all the way across the common room before crashing to a stop against the wall directly opposite the shattered windows, completely covering up and blocking the main exit doors in the process.

Bumblebee looked over at the mountain of boulders that had now amassed in front of the doors to the common room. "Geeze Louise, this guy's powerful," she thought to herself. She hurriedly looked back in Geo-Force's direction just in time to see him jump straight through the broken central window, doing a quadruple front flip in the air. And immediately after his feet landed on the floor, his fists slammed down on the floor as well, producing a shockwave that sent the already downed Titans East flying further backward.

At the sight of the now further incapacitated heroes, Geo-Force grinned smugly, lifted his still clenched fists into the air, and triumphantly yelled, "Ready yourselves Titans! It's time for me to shake things up!"

Bumblebee directed a glare towards Geo-Force. "Oh that is _so_ funny," she thought to herself sarcastically before she got up on her feet and yelled, "Titans go!" and then took to the air, her stingers at the ready.

And just like that, the battle began. Bumblebee hovered in circles around Geo-Force pelting him with bursts of electricity from her stingers. Geo-Force, however, as Bumblebee soon found out the hard way, turned out to be quite immune to electricity, as he proceeded to either just casually knock the bursts aside with swings of his arms, or take them right where they were aimed at without even flinching.

Over time, the geokinetic decided that he'd let Bumblebee have her fun long enough, and he caused a long whip-like tendril of dirt to spear its way up through the floor and grab her by the ankles. The tendril proceeded to jerk upward, yanking Bumblebee higher into the air and off balance as a result, before then descending rapidly back down to the floor, causing the fearless leader of Titans East to slam down on the floor as well. And the instant Bumblebee made contact, face-first, with the floor, the dirt proceeded to almost instantaneously expand upward and form into a dome-shaped layer of rock that completely encased the winged meta-human, trapping her.

Speedy, acting purely on impulse, prepared to fire an ice arrow. But Geo-Force caused a slab of rock to rise up from the floor like a trapdoor and slam into the arrow's tip right as the archer was about to fire, and the resulting explosion of frosty mist left Speedy dazed.

Mas and Menos quickly locked hands and zoomed off towards Geo-Force. But Geo-Force was much faster than the twin speedsters had anticipated, and the shockwave that resulted from the earth-wielder slamming his right fist on the floor as they were halfway towards him caused them to unwillingly let go of each other's hands and land on their faces. Before they even had a chance to get up, Geo-Force began to rapidly punch the floor again and again, causing multiple shockwaves that caused Mas and Menos to be sent bouncing away in opposite directions. As soon as both twins were about a good two feet or so away from the center of the room, Geo-Force clapped his hands together, causing large domes of rock to form around the two twins, encasing them in much the same way that Bumblebee had already been encased.

"Mas!" shouted Menos as he started banging his fists on the walls of his trap.

"Menos!" Menos shouted in reply as he uselessly extended his hand in the direction he'd heard his brother's voice.

Geo-Force smirked smugly as he gazed at the two rocky domes that he'd just now encased the two Spanish-speaking speedster twins within. "This is even easier than I thought it would be," he thought to himself.

"Hey!"

Geo-Force turned his head just in time to see Aqualad standing a couple feet away from him with his hands raised in a battle-ready position. "Take this!" He thrusted his right palm forward, and a river's worth of water spouted out of the sink before then proceeding to twist and snake its way through the air in synch with the movements of Aqualad's hands. And as Aqualad continued to move the water, he found himself smiling when he saw that Geo-Force was standing still, gaping in shock at the display of power. It was clear that he had not been expecting to do battle with a fellow elemental wielder. Smiling proudly, Aqualad then proceeded to thrust both hands forward, sending the water spout rocketing straight at Geo-Force.

Unfortunately, the sight of the mass jet of water rushing towards him was enough to galvanize Geo-Force back to his senses, and he hurriedly conjured up a shield-sized blob of mud from thin air in front of him. The water plowed into the glob of mud, feeding it and causing it to expand to an even larger size. For a brief few seconds, Aqualad continued to send water rushing into the mass of mud. But when he finally realized what was happening, he made no hesitation in shutting off the attack.

For a moment, Geo-Force let the mass of mud hover around between him and the stunned Atlantean. "I will admit, I was not expecting to encounter a fellow elementalist; and that being said, you are quite powerful." He caused the blob of mud to swirl through the air in a vortex shape. "However," he then stated. "Just as water is capable of drowning most land based life-forms, eroding land, and even breaking through solid rock and metal if provided with the right conditions, it also creates mud; and we all know how mud suffocates fish."

The instant Geo-Force finished that last sentence, he sent the mud hurtling straight towards Aqualad. By the time Aqualad realized the danger, it was too late for him to dodge, and the mud plowed right into and sent him slamming up against a nearby wall. Aqualad didn't even get a chance to move before Geo-Force clenched his right fist and seemed to concentrate extra hard. And in an instant, almost as if in the universe of the 'Where's my Water?' games, the mud solidified into a hard sandy layer of dirt, and Aqualad was left struggling and grunting as he tried his best to bust out of his dusty restraints.

As Aqualad continued to press himself against the solid layer of dirt pinning him against the wall, he heard the soft sound of footsteps slowly making their way towards him, and he looked in the direction he'd heard the sound in time to see Geo-Force slowly walking towards him. Aqualad found himself feeling even more nervous than he already was when he saw how very deliberately slowly the geokinetic was walking. Clearly, Geo-Force didn't feel any need to hurry. And if that was true, then the dirt restraints had to be seriously strong. But that information wasn't about to stop Aqualad from trying to get free, and so he continued to press himself up against the dusty restraint.

Geo-Force chuckled as he continued to advance towards the trapped Atlantean. "You have spirit," he stated. "And for that, I commend you."

Aqualad growled as he listened to what Geo-Force was saying. He had a feeling that Geo-Force would have far more sinister things planned then just giving him half flattering and half mocking statements.

"And like I said, you are powerful," Geo-Force continued. "If I hadn't been as quick as I was in summoning that mud, you probably could have ended this battle right then and there."

Aqualad only narrowed his eyes. "That's almost certainly an exaggeration," he thought to himself.

"But now," Geo-Force stated as he proceeded to lift up his right hand, with his palm open and facing in Aqualad's direction. "It's high time I put an end to this little workout." His hand started to glow with a yellow energy right after he finished speaking. Aqualad's eyes widened at the sight of this. While he didn't know just what it was that Geo-Force was about to do, he did have a bad feeling that it wouldn't end well for him.

Speedy also reached that same conclusion, and he hurriedly drew out an explosive arrow and got it set up to fire. "Hey you!" Speedy shouted before then shooting the arrow straight at the geokinetic.

Swift as a viper, Geo-Force's left arm sprang to the side and grabbed the arrow in midair. Aqualad and Speedy gaped at the sight. The geomancer hadn't even turned his head to face the arrow.

Smirking smugly, seemingly not showing any regard to the arrow in his hand that was about a minute at most away from exploding, Geo-Force turned his head to face the stunned archer. "A good try," he stated. "But you're gonna have to try harder than that to get me off guard." He threw the arrow right back at Speedy, and the tip landed on the floor area right in front of the archer. The resulting explosion sent Speedy flying backward, only coming to a stop when his back crashed against the rocks piled up against the doors, and he landed on the floor with a thud.

As Speedy lay on his belly by the barrier, groaning in pain, Geo-Force turned to face Aqualad once more. "Sorry about that," he stated nonchalantly. "Had a brief little distraction to take care of; but no matter." He raised his right hand up once more, causing it to glow as he resumed his preparation of whatever attack he'd been charging up before Speedy's interruption.

Panting in terror, Aqualad pressed his back up against the wall he was pinned against as if trying to put more space between him and the geomancer. "Whatever you're about to do," he stated in as brave a tone as he could muster. "I would advise against it."

Geo-Force chuckled, clearly not fooled by Aqualad's efforts to conceal his fear. "Relax fish sticks," he purred. "I'm not gonna kill you. I'm just gonna smother you sufficiently enough to knock you unconscious."

He then spread his arms out sideways like wings as if to indicate the rocky domes encasing Bumblebee, Mas, and Menos as well as the grumbling Speedy. "I mean come on, it wouldn't really make much sense to kill you after going to all the trouble of making sure that I only immobilized your friends instead of killing them. And even if I wanted to kill any of you, you're already spoken for. My master wants all five of you alive when he comes to visit next week, and he would be very cross with me if I were to disobey that request."

At the sound of that last bit, Speedy's eyes snapped open, and the pain in his back and stomach seemed to vanish into thin air. "A master?" he thought to himself. He quickly filed the information deep into his mind. He had a feeling that this bit of news would be very important to remember.

This same conclusion was soon reached by Aqualad as well, and his eyebrows raised in interest. "A master huh?" he stated.

"That's correct."

Aqualad thought to himself, filing the information away much like Speedy. "Well in that case, where is your master? Why isn't he the one visiting us right this moment?"

"He had other matters to deal with," Geo-Force responded without missing a beat. "But nonetheless, I'm more than capable of keeping you lot in line long enough for him to finish his current business." A devilish grin then came on his face, and he looked right back at Aqualad before stating, "Though I can tell you right now, once he's arrived, you're gonna wish that I had disobeyed his request to let you stay alive."

"Duly noted," Aqualad stated. He then noticed out of the corner of his eye that Speedy was slowly, but surely, straightening back up on his feet, and he hurriedly decided to continue talking so as to make sure that the geomancer's attention remained focused away from Speedy long enough for the archer to properly prepare himself to attack. "Would it be possible, perhaps, for you to tell me who your master is?"

"Nice try," Geo-Force said with a smirk. "But that's need to know." He rubbed his left hand through his hair. "And for that matter, I've already given enough away as it is." His face then took on a serious expression. "But enough talk. It's time I got you prepared for transport." He lifted his right hand once more.

"Not if I have anything to say about it."

Geo-Force rolled his eyes, lowered his right hand yet again, and turned around to face the direction he'd heard Speedy's voice. Sure enough, he saw Speedy back on his feet, directly in front of the mound of rocks, with an arrow drawn and pointing at his chest. "You just don't know when to give up do you?" he then stated, shaking his head side to side in disbelief.

"Damn right I don't," Speedy snarled. "And I'm not going down without a fight either."

"For some reason I'm not surprised."

Geo-Force made a big show of pretending to yawn, and then directed a look of disinterest at the archer. "But I'll have you know, that you're only prolonging the inevitable. I'll let you shoot, don't get me wrong on that. But it really won't do you any good to make another attempt at taking me out with one of your arrow bombs."

"Well good thing that's not what I was planning," Speedy stated before abruptly turning around so that the arrow was pointing in Aqualad's direction. The Atlantean had just enough time for his eyes to widen in horror before Speedy let go, sending the arrow flying straight towards him. Even Geo-Force was caught off guard by this unexpected turn of events, and made no move to stop the arrow as it flew towards the now very surprised Atlantean.

Aqualad closed his eyes, gritting his teeth in tense preparation for what he was sure was about to be an arrow pounding into him and exploding; only to be caught off guard when he heard the arrow come to a stop in an area of the wall directly to his right. His eyes opened, and he looked to his right just in time to see the arrow sticking out of the hardened mud covering the area directly underneath his right arm before a tiny blue light abruptly turned on near the tip and a small electronic beeping noise was emitted from the same area. Seconds later, the arrow exploded; but instead of a fiery blast, a vortex-shaped burst of water was released, soaking the hardened dirt pinning Aqualad to the wall and liquefying it back into muddy water. For just a few brief seconds, Aqualad remained where he was, too stunned to move. But then he snapped back to his senses, and he hurriedly looked back up towards Geo-Force before then getting himself into position.

At that moment, Geo-Force finally realized just what Speedy had now done, and he hurriedly turned around to face Aqualad. But the geomancer was too late, and he had just enough time to howl out a despairing "No!" before Aqualad blasted him head on with a geyser of muddy water, sending the geokinetic rocketing right back out the window before then landing in the ocean with a splash.

Aqualad shut off the attack, smirking smugly in the direction of the broken window that had now served as both an entrance and an exit for the geomancer. "Boy that felt good," he thought to himself. He turned to face Speedy, his right thumb raised in a gesture of thanks. "Thanks," he stated. "I owe you one."

"No problem," said Speedy, a smug smile on his face.

But then, all too soon, they heard an angry yell, and then they felt the Earth shake for a few seconds. It was clear that Geo-Force had managed to recover and had jumped out of the water and back onto the dry land of the island that the Titans East tower was situated on.

Speedy's eyes widened in horror, and he quickly looked back at Aqualad. "We gotta go," he then stated before turning around and firing an arrow at the mound of boulders piled up against the doors. The arrow exploded upon contact with the barrier, and the fiery blast that ensued both reduced all the rocks directly in front of the doors being reduced to ashes and sent the doors flying off their hinges before crashing into the hallway wall directly behind them.

It didn't take long for Aqualad to realize what Speedy was planning, and he hurriedly pointed at the rocky domes that were even now still encasing the other three members of Titans East. "But what about. . .?"

"No time, come on!" Speedy yelled as he grabbed the Atlantean by the wrist and dragged him off to the now no longer blocked exit to the common room.

The two boys were just a footstep away from walking right out into the hallway when Geo-Force leaped through the window once more, landing in the exact same fashion as the first time he'd entered. The resulting shockwave that resulted from the geomancer's fists slamming onto the floor sent the two boys flying into the hallway and crashing against the wall that the doors had slammed against. They crumpled to the floor, but only remained lying down there for a few seconds before Speedy hurriedly forced himself onto his feet and dragged Aqualad away down the hall. "Come on, let's go!" he yelled as he continued to run down the hall, dragging Aqualad along behind him, all while Geo-Force sent a volley of bowling ball sized stones pummeling against the very same wall that the two boys had earlier been smashed against.

For what seemed like an eternity, the two boys hurried through the tower; with Speedy firmly storming his way through and barking at Aqualad to hurry up and keep moving while the Atlantean slipped and dragged his feet close behind the archer, panting tiredly as he desperately worked to keep up with his friend. And Speedy was all too keen on making sure both he and Aqualad made it to where he was currently setting his sights on reaching. For in spite of how often they argued, they were still close friends, close enough to basically be like brothers. And brothers, as Speedy knew very well in spite of never having had any biological ones, always stuck together through thick and thin.

Eventually, the two boys reached the area that Speedy was hoping they would reach, and the archer hurriedly entered a code into the keypad on the electronic locking mechanism. The doors opened, revealing a slightly garage-like area containing a large vehicle that looked like a blue carbon copy of the T-Ship.

At the sight of this, Aqualad didn't take very long at all to guess what Speedy currently had in mind. "You're seriously going to abandon the others here to that psychopath?!"

Speedy turned his head to face the Atlantean, a glaring scowl on his face. "Relax buddy," he growled. "We're not abandoning them."

"Well you certainly fooled me," Aqualad grumbled sarcastically as he crossed his arms across his chest, clearly not wanting to step foot into the hangar.

Speedy growled, grabbed Aqualad by the right shoulder, and dragged him into the hangar alongside him.

"Let go of me you bloody buffoon!" the Atlantean snarled indignantly as he pulled himself against Speedy's grip.

Speedy turned around and proceeded to grip Aqualad's other shoulder. "Listen Aqualad," he growled. "I know it's not the most palatable of ideas here, but right now we don't exactly have any other choice!"

"The Hell we don't have any other choice!" Aqualad snapped back as he violently shrugged himself out of the archer's grasp. "We can't just abandon Bumblebee and the twins like this!"

"Again, we're not abandoning them," Speedy snarled, grabbing Aqualad by the wrist before the Atlantean could dash right back out of the hangar. "We'll come right back to help them; with help!"

The last two words were enough to get Aqualad to stop pulling against Speedy's grip, and the Atlantean turned to gaze at the archer with a look of clear interest on his face. "You mean?"

"Yes Aqualad," said Speedy. "We're going to Jump City, and we're gonna come back with Robin and the other founders to back us up; but we can't do that if we don't get out of here, so get in the ship now and lets fly."

But Aqualad briefly hesitated, clearly still reluctant to leave Bumblebee, Mas, and Menos at the mercy of the rogue geomancer. "I'm not entirely certain about this Speedy. Who knows what that savage might do to them while we're gone?"

"Look I don't like the idea of leaving them here with him anymore than you do," Speedy admitted. "And he's already neutralized Bumblebee, Mas, and Menos; but he wants all five of us. And if we stay here, we'll just get captured to! Now get in the ship!"

And that was when Aqualad finally decided that it would indeed be wiser to take part in Speedy's current plan to make a strategic retreat and come back with reinforcements. And without further prompting, he made straight for the Titans East T-Ship, Speedy following close behind him.

Within seconds, the two boys had hurriedly clambered aboard the ship, with Aqualad in the compartment in the very center of the ship and Speedy in the very front compartment of the ship. Admittedly, this compartment was typically reserved for Bumblebee, but Speedy had a good feeling that the fearless leader of Titans East wouldn't mind this 'borrowing' of vehicular seating in light of the circumstances.

Unfortunately, right when Speedy proceeded to work on activating the ship, he discovered the hard way that things would be even harder then he'd thought when an unexpected message popped up on the screen of his console saying 'warning: warm up in progress'.

"What the heck!?" Speedy yelled as he gaped at the screen, completely aghast. "Since when does the ship have to warm up before takeoff?!"

In the compartment behind Speedy, Aqualad face palmed. "Oh for the love of Neptune; I told those two not to play around with this."

"You know what's going on here?!" Speedy yelled, turning his head to angrily face the Atlantean.

Aqualad sighed, stared pointedly at Speedy, and responded. "Sadly, I do. Yesterday, Mas and Menos asked if they could use the ship as a spaceship prop for playing pretend. I told them no; but clearly, it would appear that they didn't listen."

Speedy groaned, turned around to face the screen in his compartment once more, and face palmed. "You idiots," he growled.

Then the ground shook, and the two boys heard an inarticulate howl of rage coming from outside the hangar. The teen boys gulped, looked each other in the eyes, and promptly realized that they would soon be in very big trouble unless the ship finished warming up in time for them to take off.

"Aqualad," Speedy asked. "About how much time do we need to wait now for the ship to finish preparing itself?"

The Atlantean took a close look at the console screen in his compartment. "Well the system is currently rebooted at around 60%, which leaves another 40% remaining. That could take about 5 minutes, maybe 10."

Speedy looked meaningfully towards the still open doors to the hangar. Judging from the sound of Geo-Force's earthshaking footsteps, they had about 5 or 10 seconds before the geomancer arrived at the hangar.

In that instant, Speedy quickly pressed a few keys on his console, opened his compartment, and disembarked the ship before running back towards the doors of the hangar.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Aqualad shouted in shock.

"I'm going to give you more time!" Speedy yelled as he continued to rush towards the doors. "And if I don't come back, don't worry! I've set the ship up so that you can pilot it from the center compartment if necessary."

"Stick with the plan!" Aqualad yelled. But unfortunately, by the time he yelled this, the archer had already left the room.

Upon exiting the hangar, Speedy ran back in the direction he'd come while heading to the hangar before sliding to a stop, drawing out three explosive arrows, and drawing them back while aiming at the bottom of the staircase leading down to the level where the hangar was located. He shot them, and they struck the floor at the very bottom of the staircase right at the same time that Speedy saw Geo-Force's left foot touch down on the second to last step. The arrows burst into a fantastic cloud of flames, and Speedy found himself smirking with a juvenile sense of satisfaction when he heard Geo-Force shriek in surprise and annoyance as well as a thud that signified that he had been sent flying backward by the force of the blast.

When the fire and smoke cleared, Speedy then heard Geo-Force angrily roar "YOU WILL REGRET THAT!"

"And that's my cue to run," Speedy thought to himself as he started running back down in the direction of the hangar. But of course, he wasn't about to go back into the hangar just yet. The last thing he needed to do was to lead Geo-Force right there while Aqualad was still waiting for the Titans East ship to finish warming up.

The archer heard the sound of Geo-Force's footsteps behind him become significantly louder, and he instantly knew that the geomancer had now reached the bottom of the stairs and entered the same hallway as him. "And now to make extra sure he doesn't get the chance to notice the hangar," Speedy thought to himself as he slid to a quick stop, prepared another explosive arrow, and then turned around before firing it straight at the ceiling not too far in front of the charging geokinetic. The arrow struck a convenient weak spot in that area of the ceiling, just as the archer had planned, and the ceiling within that area came crashing down to the floor. Geo-Force was forced to skid to a halt to avoid getting crushed by the falling ceiling pieces. While it didn't land on him, and would by no means serve as a permanent barrier for the geomancer, Speedy knew that it would be sufficient in annoying and enraging the enemy enough to allow him to maintain full focus on Speedy and not have the chance to notice the open doors to the hangar, and he turned around and started running again.

Sure enough, the instant Geo-Force managed to dispose of the makeshift barrier by summoning a miniature fissure directly underneath it, the first thing the enraged geomancer did was barrel down the hallway after Speedy, howling in fury, and completely running right past the open doors to the hangar without even so much as sparing it a single glance. Speedy smirked to himself as he continued to run with his back facing Geo-Force, for his plan to buy Aqualad more time to escape was now working perfectly.

For the next 8 or so minutes, Speedy continued to run through the lower levels of the tower, Geo-Force hot on his heels the entire time. And as Speedy continued to run, he made a point to continuously fire various arrows at every and any random location, knowing that they wouldn't make too much of a mark on Geo-Force, but still confident that they would at least serve the intended purpose of harassing, annoying, and likewise keeping the geomancer angry and focused solely on him instead of searching for Aqualad.

Then Speedy found himself wondering just whether or not he'd done too good of a job in leading Geo-Force away when he found himself bursting into the area outside the tower. He was about to turn around to go back inside to find a way to double back towards the hangar when he heard Geo-Force angrily yelling once more. He turned around in time to see Geo-Force barreling straight towards him, incidentally blocking off Speedy's chances of getting past him and doubling back. Cursing mentally, Speedy proceeded to run even further out onto the island with the angry geomancer quickly gaining on him.

For another few minutes, Speedy ran in circles around the island, the geomancer following along the entire time. And as they continued to run, Speedy used his arrows as if he had no tomorrow. And with each arrow fired, Geo-Force found himself continuing to remain angry as he was exposed to numerous bursts of flame, gusts of icy mist, and webs of electricity, not to mention a good few spouts of water, among other things. Eventually, Speedy, feeling even more confident than ever, reached back yet again for more arrows, only to find his eyes widening in horror when he felt the inside of his quiver and realized that he now had only one arrow left on his person.

Cursing bitterly in his mind for his carelessness, Speedy turned around and started bolting towards the doors leading back into the tower. He had almost certainly now won more than enough time for the ship to finish warming back up, and he knew he wouldn't last much longer against Geo-Force with his arrow supply so severely depleted as it now was.

But then Speedy found himself having to skid to a halt when a massive vertical wall of dust and rocks rose up directly in front of the open doorway, sealing it off. And mere seconds after Speedy finally came to a stop, four more walls of earth-based material rose up, one by one, directly in front of the first one.

"End of the line, Robin Hurl. End of the line."

Speedy turned his head to look behind him, an angry glare on his face at the insulting name. Speedy's glare only intensified when he saw Geo-Force standing not too far behind him with a smug smirk on his face and his left hand raised in a clear display of how he'd obviously summoned the barriers that now blocked Speedy's only way back into the tower.

The sight of the archer's glare only caused Geo-Force's grin to widen, and he chuckled before stating, "Looks like it's just you and me now buddy."

Speedy growled, drew out his single remaining arrow in his quiver, and positioned himself so that he had it aimed straight at the five earthen barriers sealing off the entrance to the tower.

Geo-Force chuckled, shook his head side to side, and then stated, "As usual, you just don't know when to give up." He then stepped back, bowed his head, and gestured forward as if mockingly giving Speedy his blessing, and then said, "But go ahead, try to blast away my barriers if that will make you happy. It won't do you any good, but hey, no harm in trying right?"

Speedy made no outward sign of having heard or even been remotely effected by Geo-Forces words, staying absolutely still and calm as he continued to hold the arrow back while aimed at the barriers Geo-Force had summoned. Of course, he knew that Geo-Force was telling the truth. He knew better then anyone the power of his own explosive arrows, and he knew that just a single one wouldn't even make so much as a crack in a single barrier of dust and stone, let alone 5 in a row. But still . . . "Yes," he said out loud. "No harm trying. Yes, I shall go ahead and try . . . right . . . about . . . now!"

Right after he shouted the last word, Speedy abruptly turned around so that he was facing Geo-Force, and _then_ let go of the arrow. In a flash, the arrow flew straight at the geomancer, who had just enough time for his eyes to open in surprise, before the projectile crashed right into his chest, the resulting explosion sending him flying backward and straight into the ocean with a splash.

For just a brief moment, Speedy smirked in smug satisfaction. "I may not be able to get away from him or take him down, but at least I can give him a good walloping beforehand," he thought to himself.

Then he noticed what appeared to be grains of sand moving around across the beach of their own accord, and Speedy promptly tensed up, already on guard. After all, he had a very good feeling that Geo-Force was responsible for the moving sand. But even though he was on guard, the archer still never saw coming what happened next. With a shriek, he suddenly found himself falling when the ground suddenly opened up underneath him, and he landed with a thud on the bottom of a small pit that had suddenly popped up out of nowhere from underneath him.

Speedy didn't even get the chance to fully regain his breath before he was suddenly blasted up into the air by an abrupt geyser of mud that erupted from underneath him. And when the geyser faded away, he had literally just started falling back down towards the pit when he was blown backward away from the pit by a sudden gale-force burst of sand. And for what seemed like an eternity to the archer, he was billowed around in a heavy hurricane of sand. Eventually, he was slammed down hard on the ground directly in front of the barriers blocking the tower entrance, on his backside. But even then, Speedy didn't get any chance of a reprieve before he suddenly found himself getting engulfed in an absolute waterfall of sand that suddenly came plummeting down on him. But even as Speedy found himself choking, gasping for air, and desperately attempting to hold his breath and keep his eyes closed, the only thought on his mind was, "Damn it Aqualad, if the ship's ready, just take off already!" In fact, he was so focused on this one thought, that he didn't even pay any attention to a slightly deeper mechanical droning noise that was buzzing through the air along with the rhythmic hissing gust noise of the sand.

Then the massive heap of sand that had arisen around him finally receded just enough for his head to break the surface, and he let out a mighty gasp as he found himself hurriedly gathering in now very desperately needed air, his masked eyes opening up in reflex. Then he felt an earthshaking stomp come down on the ground not too far in front of him, and he whipped his eyes over to look at the area in front of him and the sand. There stood Geo-Force.

Shaking his head side to side, the geomancer directed an almost bored look of annoyance towards the exhausted and almost completely sand submerged archer. "It would be so much easier on you if you would just surrender and let me put you under proper custody to hold you in for when my master arrives. And besides, you're already on your last legs as it is. So why keep fighting me now?"

Speedy panted and gasped laboriously for a few seconds. Geo-Force patiently waited, genuinely wanting to hear Speedy give an answer to his question. And as Geo-Force waited for Speedy to regain his breath and Speedy himself continued working to get his breath back, neither of the two seemingly paid any attention to the abrupt cessation of the mechanical droning noise, nor the sudden roar of jet engines that split the air soon afterward.

Speedy growled, spat on the ground to his left, and then glared back at Geo-Force. "Simple," he stated. "It's my duty as a hero."

Geo-Force chuckled, shook his head once more, and then responded, "Should've seen that coming."

"But that's not the only reason," Speedy then stated.

Geo-Force redirected his attention to Speedy. "There's more?"

"Yes," Speedy then stated with a small smile starting to appear on his face. "It's to keep you focused on me."

Geo-Force raised his eyebrow in confusion, not fully getting what Speedy had just said, but then he finally managed to notice the sound of the roaring jet engines, or more accurately, how the sound had just now grown louder, and his eyes widened in horror as he finally realized, albeit rather belatedly, that Aqualad wasn't with Speedy. In a flash, he turned his head to face the area that the jet engine roar was coming from, just in time to see none other than the distinctive blue T-ship of Titans East come rocketing out of the hangar and into the sky as it hurtled off to the west, towards Jump City. At the sight of the massive ship flying off into the sky, Speedy felt a small smirk pop up on his face. "Finally," he thought to himself. "I knew Aqualad would eventually get the sense to leave without me if the situation demanded."

"No!" Geo-Force as he turned around to try to keep the ship in his sights and stop it. But it was too late. Already the ship was heading far over the horizon. At this point, Geo-Force would have no chance of catching up with the ship or summoning any elemental attacks in time to even come close to blasting it down, and he knew it too.

Enraged, the geomancer stomped his left foot on the ground, clenching his fists and snarling in fury. Then he heard sniggering coming from behind him, and his temper snapped. He whipped his head around to face the archer, who was chuckling and smirking at him. Snorting and heaving in rage, Geo-Force pointed his finger accusingly at Speedy, and shouted, "You may have won this round! But you have only prolonged the inevitable! Somehow or other, sooner or later, I will get ahold of your Atlantean friend; and my master will have his way with you whether you want to or not!" No sooner had Geo-Force finished this tirade, when he sucker punched Speedy right in the jaw with his right fist. The archer had just enough time to gurgle in pain and direct a final glance towards both Geo-Force and the sky before his head leaned back and he lost consciousness.

. . . . .

(End Flashback: Present Day)

"I really didn't want to leave Speedy and the others behind. I really didn't," Aqualad stated as he finally started to reach the end of his explanation of what was happening. "But in the end, I had no other choice. And so, I just kept on flying off into the horizon towards where you guys lived, hoping that you would be able to come back with me to Steel City to help me stop Geo-Force and rescue the rest of Titans East."

Robin nodded his head, understanding the matter perfectly. "And you need not worry," he responded. "We'd be happy to help."

"You heard the man," said Cyborg. He placed a hand on Aqualad's shoulder. "We'll help your pals."

"Agreed," said Starfire.

"Ditto," said Raven.

"Yeah sure," said Beast Boy. "But quick question?"

"Yes?" Aqualad asked. The other titans looked over at Beast Boy, clearly on guard in case the question turned out to be another one of Beast Boy's more harebrained antics.

"You said you came here in the Titans East T-Ship model. That being said," he spread his hands out to his sides. "Where is the ship?"

The Titans and Terra looked over at Aqualad, their own curiosity about the apparently missing Titans East T-Ship raised now that Beast Boy had brought it up. Aqualad chuckled nervously, rubbed the back of his head, and responded, "Oh yeah, kind of embarrassing really." He looked up in the sky with an almost accusatory look on his face. "Around yesterday evening in this local time zone, I was about a couple miles or so away from Jump City when I was suddenly waylaid. Apparently, either I just happened to stumble upon a small colony of native monsters, or Geo-Force managed to summon help to try to capture me and bring me back to Steel City. But for whatever reason they were there, I was attacked by this large pack of these strange winged monster things."

The Titans looked each other in the eyes, then back at the Atlantean. "Can you describe these monsters in further detail?" Raven asked.

Aqualad nodded. "I'll admit, I wasn't entirely overly focused on looking too closely at them, but I'd say that they looked kind of like a mix between a chimp and a parrot with rabbit-like feet, talons for fingernails, and goat-like horns on the tops of their heads. They also had bat-like wings, yellow eyes, and this super dark gray skin that made it look as if they were made out of stone."

At the sound of this description, Raven nodded her head up and down, her eyes closed as if in silent acceptance of a fact. "Gargoyles."

Beast Boy's widened at the sound of that word. "You mean those things are real to?!"

"Yes," said Raven.

"What do you mean 'to'?" Terra asked pointedly.

"Long story," said Robin. He looked back at Aqualad. "You were saying?"

Aqualad nodded. "Like I said, I was being attacked by these . . . gargoyles . . . and for a time I managed to keep them at bay with the T-Ship's weaponry and outmaneuver them. But eventually, they started to overwhelm me, and I was forced to eject my compartment from the main whole; but one of the gargoyles managed to snap a cable or something while my compartment was in the midst of detaching from the rest of the ship, and I was sent rocketing forward through the sky. In doing so, I managed to inadvertently escape my assailants. However, and this is where it gets embarrassing, I ended up sailing right past Titans Tower, and I landed a good few miles out to sea.

"By that time, I was feeling too tired to continue onward, so I activated an emergency inflatable raft feature contained within the compartment, and spent the night sleeping inside the compartment as it floated around on the ocean. And then this morning, I woke up and found out the hard way that the severed cable was important when I ended up unable to reboot the compartment's propulsion systems, and so I started swimming over to here; and it was while I was swimming here when I met that big green and cranky octopus-dragon thing you had to fight off earlier, and it chased me all the way here, and the rest you already know."

The Titans all looked at each other, then back at Aqualad before nodding their heads. "I see," said Robin. "In that case, about where do you think the rest of the ship landed after you were forced to eject yourself from it?"

Aqualad pointed to his right, and the Titans looked in that direction, noticing in the process that Aqualad was pointing in the direction of the forest a couple miles away from the city and Titans Tower. "I'd say somewhere in that big mass of trees," Aqualad then stated.

Robin narrowed his eyes in concentration as he gazed at the forest. "Hmm, I see," he then stated. He looked back at Aqualad. "So, since we've more or less agreed now that we'll be coming back to Steel City with you to save the rest of Titans East and perhaps maybe even Steel City itself from this Geo-Force person, do you want us to try to fix up the Titans East ship so that you can fly it alongside our own ship? Or do you want us to have you ride in our ship while one of us flies outside it?"

Beast Boy unobtrusively directed a glare towards Robin upon hearing the latter suggestion. He had a bad feeling that he'd be the one who'd have to fly outside the T-Ship if Aqualad were to pick the latter option. But despite his fame among the Titans as not being among the sharpest tools in the shed, he was at least smart enough not to voice this complaint out loud at the current moment.

Aqualad thought to himself, clearly uncertain what to say. But then, right as he seemed on the verge of finally making a decision, the Titans unexpectedly heard Terra say, "Fix his ship."

The Titans and Aqualad directed their gaze straight at Terra, who was now standing in a determined stance with a look of absolute serious certainty on her face. "You'll need two ships for this mission. After all, I highly doubt that your team would take kindly to you having two of them give up seats in your T-Ship."

For a few seconds, Robin continued to remain stunned speechless at Terra's abruptly making the decision for Aqualad. But then his brain finally registered just what Terra had said, and his left eyebrow rose up in suspicion. "And why would I have any reason to have _two_ members of my team give up seats in the T-Ship if Aqualad were to have chosen that option?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Terra asked, a spunky smile coming on her face as she placed her hands on her hips in a gesture of confidence. "I'm coming with you."

The instant the full import of this statement reached the Titans, Beast Boy was the first to respond. "ARE YOU INSANE?!" He yelled. "YOU ARE MOST CERTAINLY NOT COMING WITH US!"

Terra glared at the angry changeling. "And why the heck not?" she asked in a deceptively calm voice.

Beast Boy growled, directed a glare of his own at his former crush, and snarled spitefully, "Do I even need to answer that? You're a traitor, a liar, and a just plain horrible person to be around; that's why."

Terra grumbled incoherently to herself, then glared at Beast Boy once more, this time with her arms folded across her chest. "Beast Boy, that was 3 years ago. I've changed since then."

"You're still a liar," Beast Boy countered, his own arms now folded up in a similar gesture as Terra's. "And that being said," he then continued. "How am I supposed to know that what you just said right now about having changed isn't another lie?"

"For once, I agree with Beast Boy," said Raven, lifting up her hood in the process. As she then proceeded to direct a hawk-like glare at Terra with her amethyst purple eyes, she then hissed, "To have you come along with us for something this dangerous would be most unwise."

"See?" Beast Boy hissed in smug satisfaction, "even Rae agrees with me . . ." Then he realized the slightly insulting undertone that Raven had managed to include within her statement, and he frowned before snapping his head to look at the sorceress. "Hey! You have agreed with me more than once before today!"

"Name five times," said Raven sarcastically with a glare of her own.

"Guys, not now," Robin groaned. The two chromatically challenged teens grumbled incoherently to themselves, and turned away from Robin with their arms folded across their chests. The Boy Wonder sighed, looked at Terra, and then calmly stated, "Look Terra, I don't like having to say this anymore then you like to hear it coming from any of us, but I'm afraid that we can't bring you along with us."

He then pointed at Beast Boy. "For starters, there is the matter of your past experiences with us; as Beast Boy has made brutally clear."

"A little too brutally," Cyborg mumbled to himself in a tone just low enough to evade Robin's ears.

Beast Boy, however, was of much higher quality hearing than Robin, and he directed a glare at Cyborg. "Nobody asked you," he hissed.

"Guys, _enough_ ," Robin growled. He looked back at Terra. "And even if that weren't the case, there is also the matter of how you'd stay safe. As has more or less been established, you don't have your powers anymore. That more or less makes you a civilian. And if we brought you along without you having a capable means of defending yourself, then we'd have to divert our power in keeping you safe, and this mission is already going to be difficult enough without the added burden of having to babysit a defenseless civilian everywhere we go."

Terra raised her eyebrow at Robin. "Last time I checked, you don't have powers either," Terra countered. "I don't see you kicking back and letting your super powered friends babysit _you_ in times of danger."

"That's different, I have skills of my own that I can use to defend myself without having any powers."

"And who says I don't?"

"You never showed us any," Robin responded.

"Never needed to," Terra responded, a smirk on her face as she placed her hands on her hips, and straightened herself as if to show her pride in herself. "But yeah, I did make sure that I'd be able to still take care of myself even if I lost my powers."

Robin raised his eyebrow. "Prove it."

Terra smiled, and beckoned for Robin as if challenging him to attack, a confident gleam in her eyes. "Sounds like a plan, go ahead and try to hit me."

This behavior caught Robin more than a little off guard, as he had not been expecting for Terra to be so quick to accept the challenge he'd just given her. Even so, he was not about to put her through any undue risk in the event that she was bluffing, and he made a half-hearted punch towards the blonde former geomancer.

Terra, however, wasn't so easily fooled, and she lazily placed her right hand up against Robin's fist, rolling her eyes in the process. "Come on Robin," she grumbled. "I know what I'm doing. Now how about we try this again, and this time you actually try like you mean it."

"You might as well," said Aqualad. "It was your idea to test her after all."

"If you say so," Robin grumbled, before he then took on a more convincing combat stance, drew his right fist back once more, and then thrusted it forward in a now much more convincing style, even letting out a guttural yell for good measure.

And then, much to the shock of both Robin and the other Titans, Terra equally swiftly leaned to her left, grabbed Robin by the fist he'd just attempted to punch her with, slapped her other hand in his armpit with a karate chop style blow, and then lifted the Boy Wonder clear over her shoulder before sending him sprawling on the ground right behind her.

The other Titans remained where they were at first, stunned speechless. "Robin," Starfire eventually managed to say. "Are you the ok?"

"Yes Star," said Robin as he started working to get himself up. "I'm ok, a little winded and surprised, but otherwise I'm fine."

"I'll say," said Beast Boy, now feeling rather unsettled at how easily Terra had now managed to take Robin down. "And it wasn't even a real fight," he thought to himself nervously.

Robin got back up on his feet and retook his earlier position in front of Terra, who smiled, placed her hands back on her hips, and smiled before stating, "See? I know a thing or two about martial arts, just like you."

"I noticed," Robin stated. "Dare I ask where you learned your martial arts?"

"Took time to train every now and then during my roaming days, continued my training in the form of paid lessons over the course of the past year since my release from petrification, and Slade taught me a few moves."

At the sight of the winces that the five core Titans made, Terra realized too late, and with a good wince of her own, that she'd probably not helped her case very much with that last bit. "Ok, yeah, that last bit probably wasn't the best thing to say."

"You think?" said Robin.

"Look the point is, I can take care of myself without my powers," Terra stated. "And yes, I'm not at the same level of mastery as you Robin; I'll happily admit that; but I'm at least competent enough to keep myself safe in a battle. You won't have to worry about diverting attention amongst your team towards keeping me safe; I can handle things without having you guys babysitting and serving as bodyguards for me. No sweat."

"It's not that easy Terra . . ." Robin began.

"Yeah I'm not an idiot Robin, I know it's not that easy," Terra stated. "But nonetheless, the wise choice would be for you to let me come with you guys. Trust me, you won't regret it. And besides, I'm already on vacation from school as per summer schedule, and I've earned myself a week's worth of off time from my job at the diner. So I'm all free to go where I please, more or less."

Robin tensed up slightly, clearly trying as hard as he could to decide just what to do. "I don't know Terra," Robin eventually said. "Look, I can see you've done your homework and under better circumstances I would have let you tag along with us in a heartbeat. But right now, you gotta understand Terra, you're asking an awful lot of us right now. I mean be realistic, we literally _just_ got reacquainted."

"And you have a pretty nasty history to answer to," Raven agreed.

"Not to mention you got caught in yet another lie not too long ago," Beast Boy snarled to back his two teammates up.

"She does have a point you know," Cyborg then stated. Robin and the two chromatically challenged teen heroes turned around and gaped at Cyborg in surprise.

"Are you serious?!" Beast Boy shrieked.

"Do I look like I'm kidding?"

Beast Boy's eyes narrowed, and he leaned forward in an almost aggressive fashion before pointing his finger at Terra and shouting, "Did you not hear a word we've just said?! She can't be trusted!"

"Oh that's rich coming from you."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

Cyborg pointed at Terra. "Don't you think it's a little hypocritical that you're being so vocal about not wanting Terra anywhere near us when you probably would have been the first to agree with her suggestion if she hadn't revealed the fact that she lied about not remembering us?"

"Well maybe I would have, or maybe I wouldn't have!" Beast Boy yelled with an understandably indignant tone to his voice. "But that doesn't matter now does it?! She's not coming with us! And that is final! She's kept too much hidden from us now!"

"And how is this any different from Raven's little secret we learned about last year?"

At the sound of this, one could have heard a pin drop. All the gathered Titans, former and otherwise, were standing around gaping in shock, stunned speechless at the horror of what they'd just now heard Cyborg say. Raven in particular looked as if she'd been throttled right in the gut. Even Terra, in spite of her not knowing jack about what Cyborg had referred to, found herself cringing and wincing as even she got the feeling that Cyborg had just now crossed a serious line.

Beast Boy however, seemed to be the most worrisome in his reaction. For what seemed like an eternity, he just stood stark still where he was, his mouth closed and his eyes widened in a stunned mixture of horror and betrayal. However, when looked at closely enough, it was easy to tell that underneath his current outer visual image, was a mass load of just barely contained rage.

Before long, even Cyborg managed to realize the full enormity of what he'd just said, and he gulped, his human eye widening in horror. But then he became even more nervous when he noticed Beast Boy's expression finally change from stunned shock to a murderous glare of such fury that Cyborg could already tell that he'd now practically signed his death warrant.

Cursing mentally at his stupidity, Cyborg raised his hands in a placatory gesture of surrender, keeping a very terrified eye on the now seriously angry changeling in front of him, and started to step back. "I am so sorry," he stammered. "That totally did not come out the way I'd intended."

"Oh this is low," Beast Boy growled in an ominously low tone. "Even for you." With an ear splitting shriek, Beast Boy's fingernails suddenly burst from the tips of his gloves as they extended into razor sharp claws. "That's it, you are so dead."

"Beast Boy, I am so sorry, I didn't mean to say that!"

"Oh you are way past apologizing point now," Beast Boy snarled.

"Beast Boy, I'm serious," Cyborg stammered. "You don't have to do this!"

"The Hell I don't," growled the changeling. "You sir, have just bought yourself a one way ticket straight back to Heaven, or maybe this time you'll end up going the other way considering what you just said!"

"Back?!" Terra yelled. "What do you mean back!?"

"Never you mind that!" Beast Boy roared.

"ENOUGH!"

Stunned out of their earlier rage (in Beast Boy's case) and terror (in Cyborg's case), the two boys turned their heads in time to see Robin standing almost directly in between them with the most exasperated look they'd ever seen on his face. For a tense few minutes, Robin glared venomously at the changeling and half robot. Then, without warning, he turned to face Cyborg and punched him right in the face with a swift-as-lightning left hook. For most other non-metahumans, such an action would have likely only resulted in a fractured wrist for the attacker. Robin, however, had been taught in a very hard school, and his blow was enough to send Cyborg stumbling backward.

Beast Boy smirked at the sight of this with a toothy grin. "Serves you . . ."

But before the shape shifter could finish, he himself was sent stumbling backward when Robin slapped him across the face with an equally vicious left handed backhander. And unlike Cyborg, Beast Boy was unable to maintain his footing, and he landed flat on his backside.

Before Beast Boy even had a chance to say anything, Robin pointed his finger at the downed changeling, a savagely angry look on his face complete with narrowed eyes, and growled, "You need to calm down!"

Under any other circumstances, Beast Boy would have shouted back in his anger. But this time, the sight of the angry look on Robin's face, a look that looked far stronger and angrier then he'd ever before seen on the face of the Titans' fearless leader before, was enough to cause the changeling gulp, and lift his hands up in surrender, his claws shrinking back down to their normal human fingernail size.

Then the boy wonder whipped his head to face Cyborg, his finger now pointing at the half robot, and shouted, "And you need to learn where to draw the line!"

Cyborg raised his hands back up, "Robin please, I didn't mean to say that . . ."

"It doesn't matter whether or not you meant it!" Robin snapped. "It was still uncalled for and out of line! You know better than to think of Raven in such a way!"

"You got that right," Beast Boy grumbled.

"Not necessary," Robin stated with a brief glance at Beast Boy from the corner of his eyes. "But thank you."

"Robin look," Cyborg stated. "I'm sorry."

"I certainly hope you are!" Robin yelled. "Because what we learned about Raven last year and what happened with Terra is a world away! And I'm sure Beast Boy will agree with me here; for unlike Terra, Raven has never willingly betrayed us! Unlike Terra, Raven did manage to come clean to us _before_ the information could be completely revealed through a secondhand source! Unlike Terra, she only kept that information secret from us strictly for our own safety! And the fact that you have now even considered to place this in the same category as what Terra did makes you no better than all those ungrateful citizens around here who even now _still_ view you and the others as freaks!"

Cyborg gulped, hung his head, and eventually said quietly, "I . . . I understand . . . Robin . . . and I'm sorry."

Robin snorted, directed one final glare at Cyborg, then clenched his fists, closed his eyes, and let out an aggrieved sigh in an effort to calm himself back down.

After about two or three minutes, Aqualad walked back up to the five main Titans. "Ok," he said nervously. "I'm glad that all this drama's been sorted out, but you guys still need to resolve the little matter of Terra's request to accompany us back to Steel City."

"I know Aqualad," Robin sighed. "Just let me regain my composure. This will already be a difficult enough decision to make as it is regardless of how calm I am when it's made."

"Robin come on," Terra pouted. "Just let me come with you guys and get it over with! The less time you keep the rest of Titans East waiting, the better!"

"I know that Terra," Robin damn near growled, "but it's not that easy. . ."

At that moment, Starfire, ever the diplomat, decided that this tableau had gone on long enough. For just like any other time in the past, she greatly hated seeing her friends fighting at this current moment, and had very nearly been reduced to tears when she'd watched Beast Boy interact with Cyborg in a manner suggesting how very willing he'd been to kill her surrogate elder brother figure before Robin had intervened.

"Friends please," Starfire stated, her hands raised in a placatory gesture and moving her head side to side to make sure she got an eye-to-eye view of all her fellow Titans, plus Terra. "There is no need for us to fight like this. Surely there is a way we can resolve this unnecessary drama in a more peaceful manner?"

The other four founding Titans looked at the Tamaranean princess, then at each other; all four of them uncertain just what to say. Then they looked out of the corner of their eyes back at Starfire, and they promptly found themselves feeling very bad about how they'd just recently been behaving upon the sight of Starfire's almost pleading face.

"Well Star," Robin said hesitantly. "I honestly can admit that, if there is a way to resolve this peacefully, I'd definitely be willing to take it; but right now I'm not entirely certain if there is such a way."

In a flash, before Starfire, Terra, or any of the other founding branch Titans could respond to Robin's comment, Aqualad decided to come to Starfire's rescue. "How about we put it to a vote?" he asked. "That way, we all get a say and Terra will have a fairer chance at either coming with us or staying here."

The five founding Titans looked at each other, thought to themselves, and then nodded up and down as one, seeing logic in Aqualad's suggestion. "Alright then," said Robin. "We'll put it to a vote." He then looked around at his teammates, both former and otherwise. "Ok . . . um, should this just be between the five of us, or should we include you and Terra?"

"Strictly in my opinion," Beast Boy stated, "I'm not entirely certain it would be appropriate to let Terra have a part in the vote. I mean, it is the jury who in the end makes the final decision, not the plaintiff or defendant."

"We could probably include Aqualad though," Raven chimed in. "I mean; it is his team mates whose lives are at stake here."

"Yeah but, that would make six voters," Cyborg broke in. "And that being said, we could have a pretty good chance at a tie, and that could be awkward, especially considering how trying to set up a tie breaker would really be inconvenient in light of how quickly we should resolve this for the sake of the other Titans East members."

"I have an idea," said Terra, who then winced involuntarily when all five of the founding titans promptly directed their gaze at her. "I mean, if you're willing to consider it?"

Robin thought to himself, and then nodded. "I'm listening." Beast Boy and Raven raised their eyebrows towards Robin, but wisely chose to remain silent.

Terra clasped her hands together, her fingers intertwining, and then suggested, "How about this. Since it would kind of defeat the purpose of this being a fair vote if I didn't get a say, how about you five, plus me, make votes on whether or not I come, and then in the event of a tie, we have Aqualad make the deciding tie breaker vote. I mean; this is his team we're talking about in need of rescue, and it would probably be most appropriate that he gets to decide what's best for your chances at saving his team mates."

The five founding Titans looked at each other, considering Terra's suggestion. "I hate to admit it," Raven stated. "But she does have a point.

"Took the words right out of my mouth," Beast Boy responded.

"I'd say that's a reasonable enough suggestion," said Cyborg.

"Agreed," said Starfire.

"Hmm, I see," Robin stated half to himself and half to his friends. Then he turned around to face Terra once more. "Very well then, I accept."

"Alright then," said Aqualad as he clasped his hands together. "Let's get to it then. Robin, as leader of the founding branch as well as the overall leader of the entire extended Teen Titans organization as a whole, I say you go first."

But Robin shook his head. "No," he stated. "Just because I'm the supreme leader doesn't mean I should by default always cast my vote first. That isn't fair. And besides, a true benevolent leader should let his underlings have a say first before he makes his decision." He then looked at Starfire. "That being said," he continued with a smile. "Starfire, as it was originally your idea for us to resolve this matter peacefully, I say you cast your vote first."

Starfire smiled joyously, and nodded her head. She then looked briefly at Terra, her smile widening, and then looked back at her friends. "I have considered carefully friends." She placed her hands on her hips. "And my answer is yes. While I do understand how very dark her past history with us is, and as naïve it is for me to believe this so easily, I truly believe that Terra has changed since then."

The Tamaranean then looked over at Robin. "Furthermore, you have often stated in the past that all who have lost their way, yet still have potential to find their way back, deserve a chance at redemption. And I agree with you." She then looked back at Terra. "And that being said, I vote that we allow Terra to accompany us to Steel City."

Then Starfire looked over at Beast Boy. "Friend Beast Boy, while I am well aware of how all of us found the revelation of Terra's betrayal quite earthshaking . . ." Cyborg sniggered slightly at the unintended pun; but then Robin glared at him, and the half robot teenager promptly shut up. "Since you, no doubt, were the one whom Terra's betrayal left the strongest impact on, I believe that it would only be right for you to be the next of us to cast your vote."

Beast Boy nodded, looked over at Terra, and then thought to himself, his eyes directed slightly upward towards the sky. Terra found herself mentally sweating, trying her best not to show her combined anticipation and nervousness. While she knew that she wouldn't forget Beast Boy's recent behavior regarding her in a hurry, and was more than a little unnerved at how very disturbingly protective he'd just acted on Raven's behalf compared to any time he'd defended her, a small part of her hoped that just maybe his old allegiance and feelings for her would resurface and allow her to be granted his approval.

But then Beast Boy hung his head with his eyes closed, and Terra's heart sank. "I will admit, you do bring up a valid point Star," he began. He then looked directly at the Tamaranean. "Yes, just maybe a small part of me hopes just as much as you believe that Terra has truly changed for the better now in spite of her recent lies. And yes, I'm sure that maybe I'd be ok with giving her a chance at rekindling her friendship with us and possibly even becoming a Titan again."

He then hung his head once more. "However," he began before looking straight at Robin. "You have technically already granted her a second chance; and yes, I know that she was at that time too far gone under Slade's control to really be all that keen on accepting it, but still, giving her a 3rd chance could very well be pushing it." He then looked around at Cyborg and Raven. "And even if we were to give her another chance at any time at all, let alone now, I'll still need time to really get over the wrongs she committed in the past and truly forgive her for them entirely; we all will. And even if I ever do manage to truly forgive and start trusting her again, I will take longer still for the animals inside me to reach that same level. And on that same subject," he hung his head once more. "my instincts are even now saying that now's just simply not the best time to trust her that much just yet, and this time I agree with them. I've already ignored my instincts long enough when it comes to Terra, and its high time I started listening to them where she's involved." The changeling sighed, closed his eyes, and shook his head side to side before looking back at Terra and saying, "I'm sorry Terra, but my answer is no."

Terra nodded, a small somber look of acceptance on her face that she could only hope was sufficiently hiding the rapidly plummeting feeling of sadness she felt deep inside her. "Have I really screwed up that bad?" she thought to herself. "Beast Boy was so forgiving of me before, even after both the time the truth finally came out about my allegiance with Slade, _and_ after the time I almost killed him." But then she registered how the revelation of how she'd lied to him about not remembering him or the other Titans was basically a 3rd betrayal against him. She then unobtrusively hung her head. "I guess this must have been a '3-strikes-you're-out' kind of deal," she then thought to herself.

Beast Boy looked over at Raven, Terra's heart sinking even further when she saw a painfully genuine look of sympathy on his face, and he said, "Well Raven, I say it's your turn now to cast your vote. After all, you may not admit it, but my instincts are telling me that Terra's actions against us had a far stronger effect on you then you let on; and to date, my instincts have never been wrong."

And then, much to Terra's surprise, the grey-skinned teenage sorceress nodded, her eyes closed in silent acceptance, and she looked hard at Terra. She sighed, hung her head, and then stated, "You do raise a valid point Starfire. As much as I hate to admit it, my danger senses, unlike all the other times we've dealt with her in the past, are not giving any indication that she is any reason for danger at the immediate moment." She sighed again. "And I will admit, I guess it would only be fair for us to let Terra to just maybe have one last chance. They do always say that the 3rd time's the charm after all."

The sorceress then lifted up her head. "However, Beast Boy has brought up an equally valid point. For as reluctantly in agreement I am with Star that Terra deserves one last little chance at redeeming herself, I also agree with Beast Boy that it will take considerable time for us all to truly get over the wrongs that Terra has committed against us in the past. And that being said, while I am certainly willing to allow Terra to perhaps gradually work to regain our trust by one small fragment at a time through small deeds that over time graduate to larger deeds, I also believe that it is too early now for us to trust her enough to let her work alongside us on something as majorly important as this mission we're about to go on. To make a leap of faith that big this early on is simply too big of a risk for us to take, and it would quite simply be wiser for us to leave her here." Raven then directed a painfully meaningful, yet also surprisingly regretful, look towards Terra. "And yes Terra, I'm sure you've already guessed this, but my answer is no."

Then Raven looked at Cyborg, her face now reverted back to her usual emotionless slate. "Your turn," she stated bluntly.

Cyborg looked over at Robin, then back at the sorceress. "Why me?"

Raven glared at Cyborg, her eyes directing such an intense venom that Cyborg's eyes involuntarily widened in fright. "You're Robin's second in command," Raven hissed spitefully. "Isn't that reason enough?"

Cyborg gulped, and then hung his head. It was now very clear that he'd screwed up even worse than he'd thought with his earlier heat of the moment comment. Now he'd managed to effectively tarnish his good standing relationships with both of his two chromatically challenged friends, and he felt his heart sinking as he realized just how very severely he'd now betrayed his two greatest friends that he'd cared so much about almost as if they were his own younger siblings. He closed his human eye briefly. "I will make this right," he mentally vowed.

Then the half robot sighed, opened his eye, and lifted his head back up. "I have considered this matter carefully," he began. "And while I do agree with Raven and BB that trusting Terra strongly enough to take her with us on such an important mission after only _just_ getting reacquainted with her would be a significantly risky move, it may also be better for us to just take the risk."

Cyborg then looked intently at all four of his fellow founding Titans. "I mean come on, we're heroes. We take big risks all the time. It's an occupational hazard. And even for those who aren't like us, life is always full of risks. It's just the natural way of the world. And as dangerous a risk as it might be to bring Terra along, I believe that it will truly be worth the risk to give Terra a chance this big for redemption this early on. You can call it a hunch if you want to, but that's my honest opinion. So therefore, I say yes." The half-robot teenager then looked over at Robin. "Your turn."

The boy wonder nodded, thought to himself, and then looked over at Terra and his friends. "Well guys," said Robin. "I have to admit, you've all raised valid points." He looked over at Starfire. "Yes Star, you are correct. I have more than once in the past stated my belief that all who still have the slightest potential of being lead back into the light after being lost to the darkness deserve a chance at redemption, and this time, such a chance may actually have higher than a 1-5% chance of success." He looked over at Beast Boy and Raven. "At the same time though," he continued. "You two are also correct in that it will both take a very long time indeed for us all to truly get over Terra's actions against us from the past and may yet be a little too early for our comfort for us to place enough trust in Terra as to let her accompany us on a big mission like this as early as now, particularly since we've only just gotten reacquainted with her." He turned to face Cyborg. "Still, you yourself have also played a powerful card. As risky as it is for us to trust Terra for such an important matter as this one this early, it also wouldn't be entirely any different from the kinds of risks we've taken in the past. Like you said, as heroes, taking big risks is a very obvious occupational hazard, and just can't be avoided, no matter how hard we try."

But then the Boy Wonder looked at Terra, and he grimaced slightly before hanging his head. "However, there is one other matter that comes into this equation that, despite having not yet been brought up, is still nonetheless important." He lifted his head and looked straight at Terra once more. "I know you've said already that you can still take care of yourself just fine without your powers, and were able to put on a pretty convincing show earlier in demonstrating your current skill. But even so, as far as I or any of the other Titans are aware, you've never had the chance or need to actually use those skills in actual combat against a true enemy. And that being said, fighting in training and in a real life battle are two different situations. In training, you make a mistake, you can just try again. But in real life, a mistake could get you seriously injured, or even killed. And on that note, suppose we did end up taking you along with us and you actually did end up getting killed? That would reflect very badly on all of us; and if you've truly changed back to the good person you were before Slade got his influence successfully asserted upon you, then I highly doubt that's what you'd want to happen." He hung his head. "So I'm sorry to say this, but my answer is no."

At the sound of this last bit, Cyborg and Starfire looked at each other nervously. Beast Boy, on the other hand, felt a small degree of juvenile satisfaction build up inside him. Since Robin was the leader, his vote would certainly carry a high degree of influence. And since he had said no, odds would now probably be high that Terra would indeed end up not accompanying the Titans to Steel City.

But then the changeling looked over at Terra and Aqualad, and he promptly decided that it would probably still yet be a little too early to celebrate. "After all," he thought to himself. "Terra still hasn't voiced her say in this vote yet, and since she's definitely going to put a 'yes' vote, we're definitely going to need to have Aqualad cast a deciding vote for a tie breaker, and Lord knows what he might say."

All the Titans, plus Aqualad, turned their eyes towards Terra. While they all had a feeling that she would cast a vote in favor of her accompanying them to Steel City, they still wanted to see just how good of a game she could talk in her defense. The blonde former geomancer closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then exhaled. She opened her eyes and started intently at her former team mates. She was ready to talk.

"You all talk a good game," she began. She looked over at Starfire. "I can certainly see the appeal in your statement Star. Robin has always been willing to give those who've lost their way, yet not been completely lost beyond hope, a chance at finding their way back, and this time, I'm certain that such a chance, albeit technically pushing things as being a 3rd chance, would have all the more likelihood of succeeding this time." Terra's smile widened, and she placed her hands on her hips before then continuing, "And while I'm at it, I do have to admit that, in spite of what your boyfriend and the rest of my direct former team mates said about your food, I have come to miss eating those really unique dishes you always liked to cook up." At the sound of this, Starfire's smile widened in glee, and the other Titans found themselves grudgingly giving Terra points. After all, she was certainly telling the truth; for they remembered perfectly well just how much she'd enjoyed eating the literally out of this world level of exotic foods that Starfire liked to cook.

Then Terra looked over at Cyborg. "And yes, you also bring up a valid point. Taking big risks does kind of come with the job description. So taking me along with you guys wouldn't entirely be any different from any other risk you face in this business; not to mention that there are probably considerably riskier actions that can be made then letting me accompany you guys to Steel City at this time."

Then the former geomancer turned to face Beast Boy and Raven, and she took another deep breath; for she knew that these two would be the most difficult to convince. Terra exhaled, looked intently at the chromatically challenged duo, and stated, "And yes, I will agree with you two as well. I do have a dark past to answer for, yes it will take time for you all to forgive me and reach the point that you're able to trust me again, and yes now is probably a little too early for everyone's comfort for you to trust me with matters as important as this mission I want to accompany you on; particularly since, yes, we did literally just get reacquainted."

She then looked at Robin. "And yes, I agree that things will be especially dangerous for me if I accompanied you. Particularly since, as you have guessed and I really don't have any use in denying, I have lost my powers, and I'm definitely nowhere as skilled in defending myself without them as you are. And yes, if I were to get killed over the course of this, it would indeed reflect badly on all of you guys. And yes, I don't want that to happen any more than you do."

Terra took a deep breath, exhaled, and then looked back at Beast Boy and Raven. "But all the same, the very reasons that you've just given for me to not accompany you are equally strong reasons for me to come along anyway. Yes, it is a little earlier than would likely be appropriate for you to just up and give me that level of trust; but let's face it, we might not get a better opportunity. Yes, things could get easier for this situation with time, but it could just as easily make it even worse and all the more awkward. As uncomfortable as it may be for all of us, sometimes it's just better to just get the unpleasant business over with right here and now then to just put it aside, bottle it up, and let it get even worse, more awkward, and less comfortable to deal with then it already is."

Then Terra looked back at Robin. "And the same can more or less apply to what you said! Because as dangerous for me as it would be to come along with you, I wouldn't be entirely safe here in Jump City either. Because think about it, now that you guys have finally found me, how can you know that there aren't any villains that will soon find out about me as well? And what if they decide to try to come after me? Heck, what if _Slade_ were to try to come after me?"

Robin winced when he heard Terra state that last bit. "As much as I hate to admit it, she certainly has a point there," he thought to himself. As unsavory as it would be for him and the other Titans to let Terra accompany them at this moment in time, if given the choice, he'd definitely prefer to have Terra be directly with him and the other Titans where he could keep a close eye on her over her ending up in Slade's clutches. "I especially wouldn't want that psychopath getting his hands on her if she truly has managed to reform by now," he thought to himself.

Almost as if she'd been reading the Boy Wonder's mind, Terra then said, "I'm sure all of you would much rather I tag along with you then risk ending up in Slade's clutches all over again."

Robin mentally cursed, and so did Raven and Beast Boy. They all knew too well that Robin would sooner take a bite out of one of Starfire's alien dishes then willingly let Slade have even the slightest chance of gaining another ace up his sleeve; and all the Titans knew how damn near impossible it was to convince Robin to even catch a whiff of one of Starfire's dishes, let alone take a bite out of it. Even Starfire had only managed to convince him to do this just _one_ time, and it taken almost a week for the Boy Wonder to let Starfire position herself within a foot of the kitchen afterward.

Then Terra seemed to have an epiphany, and she raised her hands up in the air before then saying, "Heck, even without all that mind, there's still a good reason for me to accompany you!" She then looked at each of the six Titans one at a time. "As you all know, I used to be a geomancer; and as Aqualad has made clear, this Geo-Force fellow is very obviously a geomancer. And with that in mind, just think of how useful I could be when you inevitably fight him? Granted, I don't have my powers anymore, but that doesn't mean that I can't be useful in fighting one! For all I know, he might very well use a similar fighting style as I used to use when I still had my powers! I could help you devise strategies on how to fight and defend yourselves against him! Heck, maybe I could even figure out a way to neutralize him in combat! You've gotta admit that would be helpful!"

One by one, all five of the founding Titans nodded their heads in agreement. Even Beast Boy and Raven couldn't help but agree with the logic in Terra's statement. Any potential advantage against Geo-Force, even an unsavory one, could make all the difference when the inevitable fight against him came.

Terra smiled, feeling both relieved, and rather pleased with herself, and she placed her hands back on her hips before then saying, "And with all that in mind, as unnecessary as it may be for me to say this to you out loud, I say yes."

As one, all the founding Titans, plus Terra, turned their heads towards Aqualad. They had all had their say and cast their votes, and the results were clearly in a tie. Thus, the final verdict now depended on Aqualad breaking the tie with his deciding vote. But what would his vote be? 'Yes'? Or 'no'?

The Atlantean looked meaningfully at Robin, then at Terra, then towards the sky, clearly in deep thought. For what seemed like an eternity, Terra and the Titans gazed intently at the Atlantean, scarcely daring to breath as they waited for him to make his decision. Then the Atlantean took a deep breath, exhaled, and looked back at the six teens who'd already cast their vote. It was clear that he had finally made his decision.

"Well guys," said Aqualad. "You've all cast your votes, and all of you talk a good game. But nonetheless, after careful consideration, and regardless of the fact that all six of you have raised valid points, I have managed to choose a side. Yes, I will agree that now is a little too early for our comfort for all of us to grant Terra a level of trust as strong as allowing her to accompany us on a mission of such large proportions as this one, and that it would be especially risky for both her and the Titans as a whole if we were to let her come along with us.

"However, even with all that in mind, I believe that it would be wiser for us to take the risk. For starters, as risky for all of us combined if we let Terra come along with us, we could just as easily be setting ourselves up for an even worse risk if we were to leave her here where any other villain imaginable could come after her and get their hands on her while we're on the other side of the country with no one else around to protect her. Also, as uncomfortable as it might be for us to just up and put this level of trust in her as early on as this without at least giving her a chance to more gradually prove her trustworthiness to us, it might truly be better in this case that we put that darkness aside for the greater good. As much as we hate to face them, ignoring problems won't make them go away, and sometimes it's better to just face it now and get it all over with then to just let it fester and become even harder to deal with then it will already be."

The Atlantean then turned his head to directly face Terra. "And finally, like Terra just said, regardless of the fact that she herself no longer appears to have those powers, the fact that she herself used to be a geomancer just like Geo-Force could make her a valuable ace to have up our sleeves when we face him. And since it's my team mates' lives that are hanging in the balance here, I'd say that any advantage, regardless of how unpalatable it might be, could well make any risks that come with it worth taking. And that's another thing! Our friends are in danger! Hell, their lives could be at risk! And the way I see it, what use is there in worrying ourselves with past grievances when we have tried and true loyal friends who could very well end up dying or worse if we don't put aside our differences now and save them as soon as possible?"

The Atlantean stood tall, a determined look on his face, and said, "And that being said, for the sake of my team mates, I say we put aside our differences for the greater good. As dark of a history she may have with you guys, the past is the past, and not only could she very possibly have indeed moved on and changed since then, but we all now have much more pressing matters to worry about right here and now in the present. So regardless of whether you agree with me or not, I say we let Terra accompany us on this mission. As of now, my answer is yes."

The instant Aqualad finished his speech, Starfire cheered and jumped up and down in delight, Terra and Cyborg sighed nervously in relief, and Robin, Beast Boy, and Raven nodded their heads up and down in silent grudging acceptance.

Terra noticed this, and directed a sheepish half smile towards them. "I hope you don't mind this," she stated in an effort to let the three Titans who'd voted against her coming with them know that she could be trusted not to flaunt about her victory at their expense and rub it in their faces.

Robin nodded his head. "No need to worry about that Terra. As long as everything works out in the long run, I can handle this."

"Yeah, I may not like doing this," Beast Boy stated. "But as unpalatable as this might be for us, I'm willing to suck it up for a few days or more for the sake of our friends."

"Ditto," said Raven.

"Then that settles it," Aqualad stated eagerly as he clasped his hands together, a half triumphant and half relieved grin on his face. "So, in that case, I believe we will need only to stick around long enough to at the very least fix the Titans East ship, and then we'll be on our way."

"Ah yes, about that," Cyborg stated before looking out to sea. "About how far out do you think that compartment you used in your ship is?"

"Oh that," Aqualad stated with a nervous chuckle as he rubbed his hand across the back of his head. He then turned to face the ocean, eyes narrowed in concentration. "Hmm, I wasn't entirely paying attention to the distance on my way here from the compartment, what with the monster that was chasing me at the time after all. But, I'd say my best guess is that it's probably about 5 miles or so out to sea. And as far as I can tell, the raft feature I activated hasn't been deactivated or punctured in the time I was gone, so it should still be afloat. Odds are, it shouldn't take too long for you to fly your ship out there and tow it to shore at Titans Island."

"What about the other four compartments?" Beast Boy asked.

"As long as they haven't been too badly damaged by the landing they had, those shouldn't be a problem once we've gotten ahold of the central compartment," Aqualad responded. "There's a special feature inside the central compartment that, when activated, causes all the other compartments to automatically come floating right back to it and reconnect; provided they aren't too badly damaged while separated."

"So in other words, as long as we can get the compartment you used fully back online, and the other compartments aren't in a severe state of disrepair, the ship can basically repair itself?" Cyborg asked.

"Precisely," Aqualad responded.

Beast Boy chuckled. "Like that giant robot in _The Iron Giant_."

"Huh?" Aqualad asked, his right eyebrow raised in confusion.

"Ignore him," Raven droned, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

"It's an old children's movie about a young boy who befriends a giant robot from outer space," Terra then stated.

The Titans all looked at Terra. "What?" Terra asked. "I thought that someone should at least explain the reference to Aqualad."

"And I thank you for that," said Aqualad. "But seriously, we can worry about that kind of stuff later. Right now, I do believe we have a ship to repair."

"Oh yes, right," said Robin. He chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head in slight embarrassment. Then he turned to face his teammates once more. "Alright team, let's get back to Titan's Tower. The sooner we get the central compartment of the Titans East ship towed to shore and reassembled with the other four compartments, the sooner we can start on our way to Steel City. And be quick about it guys, the rest of the Titans East members' lives depend on it." The other Titans, plus Terra and Aqualad nodded their heads in agreement.

"I guess I might as well go ahead and get changed back into regular clothes while we're at it," the blonde former geomancer stated as she briefly looked down and examined herself and the dark brown two-piece swimsuit she was wearing. "I mean, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be very sensible of me to go on a big mission like this dressed in nothing but a swimsuit now would it?"

 **And, that's another chapter done! Finally! And on that note, I once again hope you enjoyed this chapter and that you leave plenty of feedback (but no flames are allowed under any circumstances!). And do feel free to comment on whatever elements you wish! And on that note, yep, Terra is now officially coming along with Aqualad and the founding Titans to save Titans East. Here's to hoping things go alright! And here's to hoping that the next chapter won't take so long for me to write and post.**

 **Coming up Next: News of Aqualad's successfully arriving at Jump City and enlisting aid from the founding Titans reaches the villains responsible for the current mess that the Titans have to deal with. And soon after hearing this news, it isn't long before the one villain that serves as the overall mastermind decides to arrange for a little reception for the Titans to intercept them on the way to Steel City. Meanwhile, the Titans, plus Aqualad and Terra, start on their way eastward to Steel City, only to later end up encountering a few serious roadblocks along the way.**


	5. A Rocky Road Trip

**Good Godfrey, why does this keep happening!? Man, I really wish that I could post my chapters more quickly then this; and believe me, I'm trying my absolute best to quicken the pace as much as I can. Oh well, what's done is done. And at least now I'm finally posting this new chapter. And boy I'm hoping you find it worth the wait! In this unacceptably overdue chapter, the villains working behind the scenes in regard to Geo-Force's attack on Titans East and for the gargoyles and sea monster that were sent after Aqualad become aware of the unsettling new developments that have occurred against them, and arrange for a harsh reception to meet them at the midway point between Jump City and Steel City. But not without Terra opening up to her old friends and team mates about the very same past that she all to willingly shared with Aqualad during her time as a Titan. Once again, hope you guys find this enjoyable enough to make up for the cruelly long wait, and that you leave a nice respectable amount of feedback!**

 **A/N: Just to quickly cover my legal bases, I still don't own Teen Titans, or any other DC universe elements. The only thing I do own is the idea, and a brand new character that is introduced this chapter. And now, with that out of the way, I give you the new chapter! Enjoy!**

 **Chapter 4:**

 **A Rocky Road Trip**

Three hours later, the heavily cloaked masked figure cursed as her feet got tangled up in yet more long grass as she made her way through the forest. "I used to be so much better at trekking through environments like this," she thought to herself bitterly, a scowl on her face that was covered up completely by the blinding pink and white grinning cat-like mask covering her face. And indeed, just as she now bitterly remembered, she had once been able to easily make her way through far more perilous environments with minimal effort.

Cheshire snarled irritably to herself as she eventually managed to yank her foot free from the tangled long grass. "If my past self from before my servitude to Savage, or even to the Brotherhood, were to see me now, she would almost certainly spit at my feet and laugh at how pathetic I've become since I stopped working as a mercenary assassin," she growled to herself in her mind.

In her anger, she almost completely missed the large tree branch up ahead of her. And as a result, only managed out of a sheer timing miracle to finally notice it in time to avoid bumping her face right into it in her aimless trek forward, only to then slip and slide down a small slope on her back as a result of her left foot sliding forward on a small pile of leaves while she was leaning backward to avoid crashing her face against the tree branch. And as if her day wasn't already getting bad enough, she soon learned the hard way that there was a small puddle right at the bottom of the slope.

Seconds after landing in the puddle, Cheshire let out an angry growl, thrashed around in the water, and eventually managed to get herself out of the puddle and back on her feet before storming onwards, letting out a series of ill-tempered animalistic snarls as she walked further and further away from the offending puddle. "I've been working outside my element for too long," she growled to herself, fuming internally over how bad of a day she was now having.

To be fair, her day had seemingly started out pleasantly enough. Just this morning, she had set out from where she and her two superiors had set up camp in the very forest she was now trekking through to the local beach to check to see if the Atlantean from Steel City had been successfully either apprehended or terminated by the sea monster that had been placed in the area as a failsafe in the event that the Atlantean managed to escape from the gargoyle pack that had been sent to apprehend him on his way to Jump City. And soon after arrival at the beach, she'd been very happy indeed at how well things appeared to have been going for her at the time, and she'd hurriedly discarded her usual attire in favor of a camouflage patterned two-piece that she'd thought would allow her to blend in better among the Jump City populace gathered within the beach.

Unfortunately, it had all started to go downhill from there. Literally seconds after finishing her costume change and exiting the car she'd used to get to the beach, she'd heard the air suddenly flood with the sound of mass panicked screaming as well as a series of savage roars that were instantly recognizable as the kind emitted by the failsafe monster; thus revealing to Cheshire that the Atlantean had managed to evade the monster and was still alive and free. Her irritation over this matter had only increased when she'd managed to see the T-car parked a couple yards away from her car; for the sight of this revealed that the original Teen Titans were at the beach, and that the Atlantean had now both evaded the monster and led it straight to the local heroes.

Cursing mentally upon realizing this, she'd attempted to hurry on over to the beach, only to be forcibly delayed and barred from entry when a mass crowd of terrified civilians had begun to stampede out of the beach. By the time the entrance to the beach was finally clear, she'd only made it halfway across the path leading from the parking lot to the beach proper before being forced to jump off the path and hide underneath it in order to avoid crashing into or being spotted by a group of teenage girls that had then come stampeding out of the beach as well. Even after the crowd of frightened girls had come and gone, Cheshire still continued to make her way towards the beach proper through the sandy dunes that the area around and underneath the wooden path consisted of, not daring to get back on the legal path for fear of being spotted or forced to jump off of it again. But of course, due to the nature of the environment in question, her progress through it had been far slower than she'd desperately needed it to be.

By the time she'd finally managed to reach the beach proper, it had been too late. All it had taken for Cheshire to realize that her master's plans had now suffered an unintended setback was the sight of the five local Titans standing in triumph before the passed out monster lying down out cold at their feet, plus the sight of the Atlantean and an apparent civilian girl watching nearby.

For the next few hours or so that had followed, Cheshire had been forced to remain hidden in the dunes. But over the course of the final hours in which she'd remained hidden, things had seemingly brightened up for her as she learned some very valuable information that, while unpleasant in light of her boss's earlier hopes, would nevertheless be very important for him to be made aware of. And so, when the seven teenagers had finally left the beach, she had departed from her hiding place and onto the beach proper. For according to what her master had told her before departing for her now more than a little screwed up mission, there was a special transport vehicle hidden somewhere on the beach proper that had been intended for her to use to go out on the water to meet up with the monster and examine the area where the Atlantean had landed before later using it to return to the forest through a water-based means that would allow her to avoid the likely heightened risk of getting caught that would come from a land-based return.

Unfortunately, things had once again begun to go downhill for Cheshire almost immediately after she'd begun her search for the provided transport. To begin, she had found what remained of it underneath the wreckage of a billboard that had been toppled over during the Titans' battle against the failsafe monster. But even after finding the smashed and inoperable remains of the special transport, she had still been optimistic at first, reasoning that maybe she'd be lucky enough to make a land-based return through use of the car she'd used to get to the beach. But then her luck had turned sour again when she'd returned to the parking lot and found that her car, which she had both stolen and ended up parking in a restricted area, had been towed. And as if to add insult to injury, she noticed, much to her rage and disgust, that whoever had been responsible for reporting the car and having it towed had gone so far as to not only remove her usual attire and her gear from the car before towing it, but also thrown it all into a nearby dumpster.

After finally getting all her stuff out of the dumpster and very reluctantly dressing back up in her now very stinky usual attire, she'd been left with no choice but to make her way on foot back to the forest, only stalled briefly by a pack of stray dogs that were attracted by the smell of thrown away leftovers wafting from her as a result of her unflattering dumpster dive. It had taken five minutes of near harassment from the dogs before she'd finally managed to escape them through use of a smoke bomb. And now, all that, combined with her very difficult trek through the forest at the current moment in time, was making Cheshire very cranky and irritable over just how bad of a day she was having.

When she finally managed to come across the familiar stretch of path that she knew would lead straight to where her two superiors were camping, she could have kissed a tree. She was that relieved. Sighing in a mixture of relief and exhaustion, she made the last few steps to reach the camp.

Upon reaching the clearing where the camp was located, Cheshire found herself quite surprised at first when she saw that only one of her two superiors was currently in the camp. The superior in question, whom she would have recognized anywhere after how long she'd currently spent working for him, was sitting by a small fire with his back facing her. And as she soon noted from some slight ill-tempered grunts as he seemingly tapped at the fire with a small tree branch, he did not appear to be entirely in the best of moods.

"Nonetheless," she thought to herself. "I might as well at least get started with him." And she took a few final steps before bowing respectfully in a style reminiscent of the standard formal Japanese bow. "Master Savage," she stated calmly. "I have returned."

"I know," grunted Vandal Savage. Without even turning to face Cheshire, he threw aside the tree branch he'd been holding, drew out a sharpened sickle-shaped bone structure before scraping the blade across some rocks circling the flame. "I smelled you coming half an hour ago."

Cheshire gritted her teeth behind her mask, damn near biting her tongue in her effort to hold back the biting reply that rose to her mind upon hearing the rude remark from her caveman boss. When she finally felt like she could safely speak once more without losing her head, she stated, "I apologize for that Master; things didn't quite unfold as I had planned."

"I assumed as much when you didn't return at exactly noon like we'd originally planned," Savage grumbled. "Not to mention when we heard the sound of that unholy racket that monster was making earlier."

Cheshire clenched her fists to keep herself from snapping at Savage. "Well in that case, since you appear to already suspect it, I suppose it would do no harm to confirm that the failsafe has failed. The Atlantean is still alive and free."

 _That_ was enough to cause Savage to finally turn his head to face Cheshire. The caveman seemed to be in deep thought, but the he nodded his head. "I see. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, though I will admit, I certainly didn't expect the Kragon to be defeated by just a single teenage superhero . . ."

"He had help."

Savage raised his eyebrow, and then thought to himself. "I see," he then stated. "Do I even need to guess who helped?"

"The Teen Titans."

"Didn't see that coming," Savage grumbled sarcastically to himself. He turned his head back towards the campfire once more. "I will make sure that your other chaperone in this business is made aware of this news as soon as possible."

This time, Cheshire actually _did_ have to bite her tongue to prevent herself from losing her temper. Just barely keeping herself under control, she managed to damn near hiss through gritted teeth, "There is other news I have as well that I must have personally relayed to your superior as soon as possible."

"There will be no need for that," Savage grunted.

At that point, Cheshire didn't even try to keep her temper in check. "What is your problem?!"

"My problem?!" Savage got up on his feet and turned to face the Vietnamese teen assassin, anger clearly written on his features. "Have you forgotten where you stand in this partnership?! I'm the master here, and if I say that he doesn't need to worry about what you have to say, then he doesn't need to worry!"

"You don't even know what the news I'm referring to is!"

"I have a fairly good idea what it might be thank you very much!" Savage retorted. "Odds are, it goes somewhere along the lines of Aqualad is soon going to head back to Steel City with the founding Titans traveling alongside him to take out Geo-Force and rescue the rest of Titans East!"

Cheshire gritted her teeth. "That is a part of the news I need to relay to Master Mal . . ."

"Oh so he lets _you_ be on a first name basis with him and not _me_!?"

"That is beside the point . . .!"

"Well regardless of what the point is, my _superior_ as you kindly described him, has no need to worry about the Titans coming to Steel City with Aqualad, or any other minor details I didn't mention in my watered down version of it, and that's a fact!"

"And how can you possibly know that when I myself, let alone you, don't even know what it is that Cheshire was going to say?"

As angry at each other as they were, both Cheshire and Savage were nonetheless taken by surprise when they heard the unexpected voice from right next to them. They turned around to face the direction they'd heard the voice coming from, and saw a cloaked figure standing in between two trees about a couple feet or so in front of them. At first glance, this figure could have been anyone due to how he was almost completely covered up by the heavy black cloak he was wearing. But then they managed to see the pair of fiendish, glowing blood red, almost pupilless eyes that seemed to be hovering in the very center of the darkness within the interior of the cowl of the figure's cloak, and they instantly knew without a doubt that their shared superior had arrived.

After a few seconds of standing in stunned shock, Cheshire remembered her manners and gave a slight bow of respect towards the cloaked figure. "Master," she stated. "When did you get here?"

The cloaked figure seemed to raise his eyebrow. "Well to be 100% honest, I was actually about to step foot in this very clearing myself when you arrived and started your little chat with Savage."

Upon saying the last bit, the figure directed an accusing glare at the immortal caveman, who winced, clearly all too aware of how his superior very obviously now did not approve of his recent behavior toward Cheshire. The figure continued to direct his nightmare-making eyes towards Savage, and the immortal caveman found himself involuntarily remembering tales he'd heard across America throughout his existence of the mysterious cryptid called the mothman. Heck, he'd actually ended up face to face with one more than once. And now, staring into the ominous red eyes of his superior, he felt himself feeling the same deep rooted primal fear that he'd felt while under the hypnotic fear-inducing effect of staring into the eyes of the mothman.

Eventually, the cloaked figure grunted curtly in an apparent dismissal of his current concerns regarding Savage, and he entered the clearing and walked right up to Cheshire. "So, I hear that not only has the Atlantean successfully evaded capture or termination by both the gargoyle pack and the kragon, but that the kragon has also now been neutralized by the original Jump City Titans; is that correct?"

"Yes sir," said Cheshire. "You heard correctly."

"I see," said the cloaked figure. He nodded his head up and down as if accepting the knowledge. "That is unfortunate." Then he seemed to realize something, and he quickly asked, "Is the kragon dead?"

Cheshire shook her head. "No sir. From what I overheard from the Titans conversation with the authorities and scientists who came to remove it from the beach premises, they only managed to knock it unconscious."

Much to Cheshire's surprise, the cloaked figure's eyes narrowed, as if this information had put a wrench in his plans. "And do you know for certain just how the Titans neutralized it in the end?"

Cheshire thought to herself, briefly having trouble remembering just what the Titans had said about exactly how they'd managed to defeat the monster in the end. "They electrocuted it," she eventually replied, the memory finally resurfacing in her mind.

The cloaked figure cursed under his breath.

"Is that a problem?" Cheshire asked, her voice clearly showing her concern.

"It would have been far less problematic for us if they had killed it," the figure growled. "With the kragon still alive, the Titans may yet find out about how we . . ." The figure paused, looked over in Savage's direction as if trying to decide whether or not it be worth finishing his sentence with the caveman around to overhear.

Savage mentally sighed. "Is there anything I can do to get this man to trust me?" he thought to himself.

The cloaked figure snarled, and looked back at Cheshire. "Never mind, nothing we can do about that now. I believe that you still have more to tell with this story?"

Cheshire nodded, deciding not to push her master on the matter of what he'd been about to talk about regarding the kragon still being alive being more of a problem than if it had been killed. "Yes master, indeed there's more. As of now, the Jump City Titans are aware of the situation at Steel City and will be accompanying the Atlantean back to deal with it as soon as they have repaired the Atlantean's ship."

The cloaked figure nodded his head up and down. "That is also unfortunate," he stated. "But I believe you said that there was more?"

"Master there's really no need to worry about that," Savage began.

In a flash, the cloaked figure turned his head to face Savage, his red eyes staring straight into those of the caveman. Savage winced, and then hurriedly stepped back with his hands raised in a gesture of surrender and a look of pure terror on his face.

His superior snorted, turned to face Cheshire once more, and said, "Continue."

Cheshire nodded. "As of this day, the Atlantean and the Jump City Titans aren't the only ones who will be coming to Steel City." She paused, taking a series of deep breaths as if preparing herself for a very important announcement. "The young former geomancer that used to work for Deathstroke will be accompanying them as well."

Savage's eyes widened at the sound of this announcement. He had most certainly not been expecting _that_ bit of information. Then he promptly cursed himself mentally for his stupidity in dismissing this information earlier. "Idiot!" he thought to himself angrily.

Even the eyes of the cloaked figure seemed to widen. "They've found her?" he asked in half wonder, half apprehension.

Cheshire nodded. "Affirmative. I saw it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears. And even worse, at this point, there is now full confirmation that the shape shifter indeed did encounter her earlier this year. Granted, she still doesn't yet appear to have managed to regain her old abilities, but the fact that she is now going to accompany the Atlantean and her former direct teammates to Steel City is nonetheless very good reason for worry in regard to your current plans."

"I will admit, I do feel slightly relieved that she has not regained her powers," the cloaked figure admitted. "But why does this fact not make it any less worrisome for her to be getting involved in this matter?"

Cheshire took a deep breath, exhaled, and then gazed her superior straight in his ominous red eyes. "Master," she began. "As incapable as she currently still is of using her old abilities from before her petrification, the fact that she is now beginning to become more accepting of returning to her old life and continuing to regain more memories could yet allow her the chance to reactivate these very powers."

The cloaked figure thought to himself. "That is true," he admitted.

"Also," Cheshire continued. "As I heard the young former geomancer herself say, she is reportedly still capable of holding her own in a battle without her old powers thanks to some training she has taken in martial arts in the past that have only been further strengthened over the years through both her own will as well as through teachings from Deathstroke."

She then took another deep breath, exhaled once more, and finished by stating, "And finally, there is the matter of her connection to Geo-Force."

The cloaked figure raised its eyebrow. "What about it?"

Cheshire bowed her head. "Her presence in the area could prove a vital obstacle in regard to your control over him."

Her superior seemed to raise his eyebrow. "And why would I have any need to worry about her effect on my control over him? It seems perfectly strong enough from what I've managed to see."

"This is different," Cheshire stated patiently. "Geo-Force didn't know Titans East personally; and before his encounter with them yesterday, the only people he had any significant interactions with upon first being placed under your control were myself, you, and Savage."

"So?" the cloaked figure asked.

"Unlike us, Titans East, or even the local Jump City Titans, the younger geomancer is someone that he knows personally. And not only that, but her connection with Geo-Force is far stronger than the kind he'd have with just a mere friend."

Savage raised his eyebrow upon hearing this. "Didn't see _that_ coming," he thought to himself.

His superior likewise seemed interested. "Really?" he asked. Cheshire nodded. "Do explain."

Cheshire directed a sidelong glance at Savage, and then gestured to the cloaked figure as if prompting him to lean over so she could whisper. Savage scowled at this, but wisely remained silent. The cloaked figure obliged with Cheshire's silent request, and the masked young woman proceeded to whisper near the area where she was sure that her superior's ear was located. The figure's red eyes narrowed, and then seemed to clearly fill with an acceptance upon hearing what his subordinate was whispering. After a while, he nodded his head and lifted it away.

"I see," he stated simply. "I will admit; I had forgotten about that little matter. And indeed, with that in mind, her presence could indeed prove a credible threat to my continued control over the active geomancer." He nodded his head. "In that case," he continued before then looking straight at Cheshire, who now had a smile underneath her mask as well as on it. "I shall work to make sure that she and the Jump City Titans do not make it to Steel City."

"Master there's really no need to worry about them . . ." Savage began.

The cloaked figure whipped his head around to glare at the caveman once more. "Again with this Savage?" he snarled, his red eyes seeming to expand and blaze with fire in response to his now very angry tone.

Savage cringed at the sight of this, bowed his head, and then lifted it back up before saying, "Master, I know that I'm pushing things here, but you really are worrying too much about this matter . . ."

"And you do not worry enough!"

Savage sighed. "Master, I mean what I say; name one reason why you can't just trust me on this."

"Where should I begin?"

Savage groaned upon hearing this; it seemed that he'd now dug himself deeper then he'd thought.

"Need I remind you of the Devil's Gate Incident from two months ago?" the cloaked figure asked. Before Savage could even think of a response, his superior raised an arm as if to silence him, and then said, "And that's only the most recent out of many reasons for his Malevolence and I to be cautious about what we trust you with."

Savage mentally groaned, and bowed his head in shame. "Must I always be reminded of that?" he thought to himself. He looked back up. "I understand master, but still . . . they're just children."

"And here I was thinking you would have learned by now to stop underestimating them like this after what happened two months ago," the cloaked figure remarked.

Almost biting his tongue, Savage responded, "Master please."

"Who makes the important decisions in this operation?" his superior asked.

"I do . . ." Savage began, before his eyes then widened upon both realizing what he'd been about to say and seeing the look that soon came onto what he could see of his superior's face at the sound of it, and he lifted his hands in surrender before hurriedly backpedaling. "I mean you do! You do sir! You!"

"Well it seems you haven't taken _complete_ leave of your senses, thank his Malevolence," the cloaked figure growled in an almost spiteful tone.

Savage sighed, half in relief and half in despair. "But nonetheless, what will it take for you to trust me, or at least respect me as an equal?"

"YOU WANT ME TO RESPECT _YOU_?!" his superior roared.

Savage gulped, and raised his hands in an effort to try to placate his superior, but the cloaked figure pointed one of his sleeved up arms towards the caveman and hissed, "That's rich coming from a man who's spent the last two months showing the exact _opposite_ of respect towards me and, by extent, to his Malevolence and his wisdom!"

The cloaked figure spread out his arms sideways. "You always complain nowadays of how little his Malevolence, myself, or any other villain these days trusts you anymore! Yet you do nothing to prove yourself worthy of being regarded as anything other than untrustworthy! And even by villain standards, you have proven yourself the king of untrustworthiness!"

Savage moved as if to speak, but his superior cut him off with a gesture. "If you want me to trust you or even respect you anymore, then you will get your act together! You will stop acting like a tantrum baby and accept your losses and work to overcome them! You will stop trying to undermine my authority, stop trying to make decisions for me, and never again assume the arrogance of attempting to speak for me in things that specifically require my explicit word! You will stand back in line and let me handle things as I see fit! And you will earn my trust and that of his Malevolence back through a gradual process the way it's supposed to be earned! And you will listen to me and my orders and do as I say!"

For a moment, Savage was stunned speechless, and then he hung his head in shame. "Yes . . . master," he stated in a mixture of humiliation and reluctance.

The cloaked figure snorted, then turned to face Cheshire once more. "I shall send the gargoyles back out to intercept them at a sufficient midway point between Jump City and Steel City. And this time, they will be under orders to resort to lethal measures at first glance, but to only kill the Atlantean if left with no other option. If there is even a chance that he can still be taken back to Steel City alive, then I am more than willing to take it so I'll have a complete set to convert like I did with Geo-Force."

Cheshire nodded. "What if they escape from the gargoyles?"

Her superior thought to himself. Then his eyes seemed to widen as if he'd gotten an idea. He reached into the folds of his cloak and handed the masked girl what appeared to be some sort of strange blue diamond-shaped crystal. "Use this to teleport yourself straight to the Titans East Tower. Tell Geo-Force that you have come to relieve him of his duties as guardian of the captive Titans East members, and that it is high time that he goes ahead and truly makes his presence known to the people of Steel City. With him there, the Titans will definitely have a real obstacle in their path to prevent them from rescuing the rest of Titans East."

"But won't that. . .?"

"Fear not," her superior reassured the cat-masked girl. "Knowing the Titans, and Robin in particular, they will have Terra stay back from direct combat with Geo-Force for now, strictly for her own safety. And more likely than not, the Atlantean will stick around with her just to provide some additional protection. And for that likely inevitability, you need only tell Geo-Force to summon some minions to take out any stragglers the main Titans group leaves behind in their rush to do battle directly with him. As his Malevolence himself observed in his watching of Deathstroke, the former geomancer was once able to create monster sidekicks out of earthen material while using the implants placed within her to control her powers. Geo-Force, as I myself witnessed when I converted him, is capable of the same thing, but at a significantly stronger level. Therefore, with Geo-Force himself taking on the Jump City Titans in the event that they survive the gargoyles I'll soon be sending after them, and the former geomancer, plus potentially the Atlantean, sidelined by his summoned minions, I should have no worry about losing control over him now should I?"

Cheshire thought to herself. "That . . . does make sense," she admitted.

Her boss nodded. "Glad to hear you think so."

Savage snorted, and stepped forward in anger. "This is ridiculous!" he shouted, his feelings of humiliation and betrayal over how much he was now being mistrusted by beings that he was supposed to consider his allies and his envy over his superior treating another underling of even lower rank than Savage with an incongruently high level of respect once again clouding his judgment. "I insist that there is no need to worry so much about those five bloody children! Your paranoia will be the death of you!"

"AND YOUR PRIDE WILL BE YOURS!" the cloaked figure roared savagely before then whipping around to face Savage, his eyes seemingly literally on fire. Savage blanched, and tried to back down, but the cloaked figure suddenly appeared literally an inch away from them as if he'd teleported and grabbed the caveman painfully on the shoulders. Literally seconds after the cloaked figure grabbed onto Savage's shoulders, the tips of the sleeves covering up the figure's hands burst into flame as well, causing Savage to howl in pain. Seemingly either oblivious to his colleague's pain, or not caring about it, the cloaked figure then shouted in rage, "THIS IS EXACTLY THE KIND OF THING I ONLY JUST RECENTLY WARNED YOU TO STOP VANDAR ADG! AND I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU SAY RIGHT NOW! IF YOU ARE GOING TO TREAT ME WITH DISRESPECT, THEN I WILL DO EXACTLY THE SAME TO YOU! AND UNLESS YOU WANT HIS MALEVOLENCE TO NEVER TRUST YOU AGAIN AT THE VERY LEAST OR STRIP YOU OF YOUR IMMORTALITY AND CLAIM YOUR SOUL AT THE VERY WORST, YOU WILL LEARN TO RESPECT YOUR FELLOW VILLAINS, ACCEPT YOUR OWN MORTALITY, AND TAKE ALL THREATS AGAINST YOU AND FELLOW VILLAIN-KIND, EVEN ONES AS SEEMINGLY MINOR AS THE TEEN TITANS, SERIOUSLY!"

The cloaked figure then thrusted his hooded face mere centimeters away from Savage's own, and the caveman screamed from a combination of both the terror of seeing his superior's literally fiery eyes hovering right there in front of his own eyeballs and the pain of the hellish heat seeming to boil at his face and singe his eyebrows. "I MYSELF HAVE FAR BETTER THINGS THAT I'M ALREADY IN THE MIDST OF THAT I COULD BE GETTING DONE FAR MORE SWIFTLY RIGHT NOW IF IT WEREN'T FOR MY HAVING TO DEVERT MY TIME BETWEEN THOSE TASKS AND SERVING AS YOUR GLORIFIED BABYSITTER ADG! THE ONLY REASON I EVEN AGREED TO CHAPERONING YOU AROUND IS BECAUSE I WAS HIRED FOR THE TASK DIRECTLY BY HIS MALEVOLENCE HIMSELF, AND I'M SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW NOT TO TURN DOWN ORDERS FROM HIM! NOW YOU HAD BETTER START TAKING ALL THIS SERIOUSLY, LEARN TO SHOW SOME DAMN RESPECT, AND ADMIT YOUR OWN VULNERABILITY IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU ADG! YOU MAY BE IMMUNE TO DYING OF AGE, AND YOU MAY HAVE MANAGED TO GO UP AGAINST THE JUSTICE LEAGUE, SEVERAL OTHER HEROES BOTH SOLO AND IN TEAMS, FOUGHT COUNTLESS BATTLES AGAINST YOUR SWORN ENEMY THE IMMORTAL MAN, AND SURVIVED MULTIPLE OTHER DANGEROUS SITUATIONS FOR YOU RELATIVELY UNSCATHED, BUT YOU ARE ANYTHING BUT INVINCIBLE! AND UNLESS YOU LEARN TO ACCEPT THIS FACT, LOOK FURTHER THAN YOUR OWN SELFISH DREAMS, AND BE CAREFUL IN HOW YOU GO ABOUT, THEN ONE OF THESE DAYS, YOU WILL BE DEFEATED BEYOND HOPE OF RETURN! AND SOMEONE AMONG YOUR FELLOW VILLAINS, AND BY HIS MALEVOLENCE I HOPE ITS ME, WILL BE THERE TO SEE IT HAPPEN!"

The cloaked figure then flung Savage to the side, sending the caveman sprawling towards the clearing entrance that Cheshire had entered through, his hands and eyes losing their fiery coats minutes later as he proceeded to calm down. As Savage groaned, and worked to get up, the immortal caveman heard his shadowy superior state coldly, "You may desire to rule the world Adg, but even the strongest of kings must know that no matter how tough you think you are and appear to be, there is always someone or something else that is tougher."

Savage panted, turned his head to face his superior once more, and then snarled bitterly through gritted teeth, "That may be true, but at least I can afford to be as I am at this current time; because whoever or whatever my match is, I haven't met it yet!"

"Oh yes you have," the cloaked figure responded back coldly, his arms folding back across his chest and his eyes darkening to an almost bloodlike color. "Far more times than you even realize. You just refuse to admit it."

This comment left Savage speechless, and the cloaked figure snorted disdainfully at his colleague before turning to Cheshire once more. "Forgive me for forcing you to stick around to witness all that," he then stated to the masked girl. He then tapped on the teleport crystal still clutched in her hand. "You are dismissed," he then continued. "At this time, you may proceed to Steel City."

Cheshire thought to herself, and then nodded, clenched her grip around the teleport crystal, and said, "Very well then. Farewell master." Then the teleport crystal glowed, and in a blinding burst of blue light the former assassin vanished from the clearing.

The cloaked figure nodded, then turned to face Savage, his eyes narrowing in distaste at having to spend yet more time with the immortal caveman. For a moment, he found himself fighting the very tempting urge to leave the clearing without his vastly unwanted charge, but his loyalty to his own superior eventually won over the petty temptation. "Get up Adg," he then managed to spit out before then turning around to face the seaward side of the clearing, seeming to snap his fingers, and causing a portal of shadowy energy to materialize in front of him. He turned his head to face Savage once more, swearing profusely in his mind at being forced to bring the careless immortal oaf alongside him, and growled curtly, "Well come on. Unless you'd rather take another shot at taking over the world on your own devices, you might as well tag along with me so that I can continue to keep an eye on you so as to prevent you from screwing up anymore of his Malevolence's plans, especially any that are strictly single chance only."

. . . . .

The very next day, after a good night's sleep following several hours of hard work in getting the Titans East ship fit for travel and preparing for their upcoming trip to Steel City, the Titans, plus Aqualad and their unexpected additional party member, were ready to set off on their way to take on Geo-Force and rescue the rest of Titans East. In fact, at 9:00 sharp, both of the two ships had taken off and started flying eastward to New York.

About an hour after initial takeoff, things were going quite smoothly for the flight . . . a little too smoothly. Robin couldn't help but feel a little unnerved as the two ships continued their straight forward flight through the sky with seemingly no obstacles in the way. As Robin knew all too well from experience, if something looked easy, then odds were high that it most certainly was not going to be easy, and in the worst way possible.

But for the sake of his friends, he kept quiet on his misgivings and let no sign of them appear on his outward physical appearance. He even went so far as to smile a couple times and make a few comments over the course of the conversation that was going on between Cyborg, Starfire, Aqualad, and Terra. Raven, as usual, contributed very little to the conversation.

However, there was one titan who, quite surprisingly in his regard, hadn't yet commented once the entire flight. In fact, after a while, even Raven soon found herself more than a little worried about how the usually insufferably talkative Beast Boy hadn't yet spoken a single word over the course of the flight. In fact, the entire time from takeoff till now, the changeling had remained seated in his compartment staring blankly ahead with a facial expression that looked half disinterested and half deep in thought.

Cyborg, now getting very worried about his best friend's uncharacteristic silence, decided that enough was enough. Tapping into the microphone of his headset, he said to the changeling, "Yo man, what's up?"

Beast Boy narrowed his eyes briefly in a glare, then sighed, and responded in a deadpan tone, "The sky."

At the sound of this tone, Cyborg and Starfire found themselves feeling very worried about just what kind of mood their green friend was in. Terra and Aqualad also felt nervous, and even looked into each other's eyes from all the way in their separate compartments of the Titans East ship. Robin even found his eyes narrowing angrily, feeling more than a little aggrieved at Beast Boy's current behavior.

Raven, however, decided to try her own luck at getting through to Beast Boy, and she tapped into her own headset before asking, "Are you sure you're ok Beast Boy?"

Beast Boy briefly tensed up in surprise at hearing Raven's voice, his eyes comically widening. Then he shook his head as if to bring himself back down to Earth, and he chuckled nervously to himself before replying, "Well . . . more or less I guess."

"Why more or less?"

Beast Boy sighed, clearly reluctant to continue discussing the matter with Raven, but he decided to man up and continue anyway. "Well, honestly . . ."

"For the record, I really am sorry about that day."

Beast Boy and the other Titans were all quite surprised to unexpectedly hear Terra speak over the mic. Even Aqualad seemed slightly surprised by the sound of Terra speaking at the current moment in time.

Terra closed her eyes, nodded her head up and down, and then continued, "I truly regret now what I did to you that day, I really do. And I am truly sorry that I didn't tell you the truth. If I hadn't been such a coward at that time, I wouldn't have lied to you. And for the record, I very well possibly would have maybe at least considered letting the rest of your team mates into the loop as well."

The eyes of all five of the Jump City Titans widened upon hearing this, clearly in shock.

"Granted, I probably would have put my foot down at it at first," Terra admitted. "But I'd like to think now that, maybe, over time, perhaps I would have let you give them the chance to reacquaint with me as well." She then hung her head. "And while I'm at it, I'd like to apologize again for all the wrongs I committed against you while working for Slade; and _especially_ for trying to kill you guys." All five of the Titans in question nodded their heads in agreement.

Then Terra sighed. "And for the record Beast Boy, I'd also like to say that I'm sorry for blaming you for Robin figuring out about my inability to properly control my powers during the time I still actively worked to keep it a secret. Granted, all the evidence seemed to be pointing that way, but it was all nonetheless circumstantial evidence of something that I'd been somewhat convinced of suspecting by Slade, and thus, I really should have given you the benefit of the doubt and let you and Robin have the chance to properly explain." She hung her head. "To put it simply, I don't blame you for that anymore, and you really don't need to blame yourself for that anymore either."

"She's right Beast Boy," said Robin. "You're not to blame for that incident in any way, shape, or form. The way I see it, go ahead and blame Slade. He's the one who managed to get a slight hold on her and allowed her that one little suspicion that very seemingly got confirmed in the first place. Or better yet, after we land, go ahead and take a swing at me. I'm the one who unwittingly framed you for blowing the whistle on her to me."

"Ok that I've _got_ to see," said Cyborg.

Aqualad, sitting in the center compartment of his ship once more, which happened to be right behind the compartment Terra was in, had to fight to keep himself from laughing at the mental image he'd now managed to conjure up of Beast Boy slugging the Boy Wonder in the face.

Raven rolled her eyes. "Boys," she droned.

Starfire, however, looked rather worried. "Boyfriend Robin, don't you think such a suggestion to be a little too much the extreme?"

"Normally I'd say yes," Robin admitted without missing a beat. "But if it will help make Beast Boy feel better, I'm willing to allow such a behavior just this once."

"Thanks Robin," Beast Boy said with a small nervous chuckle, and his head hung a little to hide the small blush of embarrassment on his cheeks. "But while I appreciate the sentiment, I'd really rather not punch you in the face over this."

"Thank Azar," said Raven.

"Thank X'hal," Starfire stated at the exact same time.

"Hey, no homo," Cyborg hollered upon hearing the two girls speaking at the same time . . . only to then get beaned right in the face by what appeared to be a pitch black lightning bolt that abruptly burst out of the computer monitor in front of the half-robotic teenager, much to the amusement of the three non-cybernetic boys. Even Terra found herself laughing at Cyborg's expense.

"Ow!" Cyborg yelled when he finally managed to get his bearings back and the pain in his face lessened. "What was that for?!"

"Show some respect," Raven hissed.

Cyborg, seemingly confused by this statement, was about to ask Raven what she meant when he heard Beast Boy say through the mic "Um Cy, I'd leave Rae alone right now if I were you."

"It's Raven," the sorceress droned without missing a beat.

This got all four of the other Jump City Titans laughing their heads off. Even Aqualad and Terra soon joined in. Raven, meanwhile, found herself rolling her eyes, but not without a treacherous smirk of amusement creeping onto her face.

"Yep," Robin managed to state when he finally was able to stop laughing long enough to regain his breath. "This is definitely the team I know and love." This comment resulted in even more laughter from Aqualad, Terra, and the other subordinate Jump City Titans apart from Raven.

Eventually, Terra managed to get herself back together. "On another note, I might as well mention that I am also sorry for withholding that other information you had to find out about yesterday."

For a brief moment, the five main Titans were confused by this. Then, literally right as they were starting to remember just what Terra was referring to, Terra herself further confirmed their thoughts by saying, "I can definitely admit, it was pretty mean of me to lead you on the way I did while also spending all that time with Aqualad behind your back in spite of knowing how you felt about me back then."

Terra took a deep breath, exhaled, and continued, "And yes, I am also sorry that you found the hard way how I'd been more open to Aqualad then I ever was to you and the other members of your team, particularly about my past before I joined up with you guys."

There was a brief pause. "However, I will have you know that you're not exactly blameless in that regard either."

At the sound of this, all five of the Jump City Titans found great interest in random elements of the area around them. They knew all too well what Terra was now getting at.

Sure enough, Terra's next comment was exactly what they were thinking. "As many secrets as I kept from you Beast Boy, you had secrets of own you kept as well. If you'd wanted me to talk to you in detail about my past the way Aqualad and I did together, you certainly didn't act like you wanted it, let alone show a good example by telling me your own history from before joining the Titans. And for that matter, neither did Star, Cy, Raven, or Robin. So really, and I'm sorry if this offends you, but I personally think it's a little hypocritical that you got so angry about my not telling you about that stuff I told Aqualad when you and the others hadn't really acted any different in that regard."

The other Titans all found themselves awkwardly nodding their heads in agreement. Then Beast Boy sighed. "I know Terra," he stated. "It was pretty hypocritical of me to act like that over that particular detail." He then turned his head to look to his right so that he would at least be looking in Terra's direction if not directly at her. "And for that matter, let's just say that, at that point, I was already angry that I just snapped over that detail purely on impulse. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to make excuses for my behavior, not at all. But I just want you, and also the rest of you guys for that matter, to know that I just wasn't entirely in my right mind at the time. If I'd been calmer and not so high on anger, I would never have reacted as horridly as I did to learning that information yesterday."

Beast Boy then hung his head, nodded it up and down with his eyes closed, and said, "To make a long story short, I'm sorry."

For what seemed like an eternity, Terra, Aqualad, and the other four Jump City Titans were stunned speechless. Not one of them had expected what Beast Boy had done, least of all after how vehement he had been the previous day about his being against Terra accompanying them, making it clear that it was reportedly high time he listened to his instincts when it came to Terra, and had only minutes ago implied that he'd still been feeling uncomfortable in her presence.

"Now don't get ahead of yourselves now," Beast Boy then stated in one of his more serious tones, almost as if he'd managed to read their minds. "I still don't fully trust her at the level I used to, and it will still take a very much longer time for my animal sides to trust her, period. But right now, I can safely admit that I'm a bit less averse to the idea of letting her win our trust back, that's all." The other Titans thought to themselves, and then nodded in agreement, seeing the logic in Beast Boy's statement. Terra and Aqualad also nodded to themselves in agreement.

"Well on that note," Robin stated, "let's move on to the next subject." He turned his head to his right as if attempting to look straight at Terra. "Since we're going to spend the next day or two together, we might as well try to help make things more comfortable for everyone, and I was thinking, if you want, you're free to go ahead and talk to me and the others about that stuff from your past you told Aqualad about . . . if you want to that is."

For a little while, absolute silence followed Robin's suggestion. Then it was eventually broken when Terra slowly said, "I guess I might as well. But why now?"

"Well like I said," Robin replied, "it might help us all feel a little more comfortable around you for the next few days. And also . . ."

Robin paused. "Well, let's just say that, right now, I really think it would be a good idea for me and my fellow founders to tell each other our backstories in full some day or other in the near future, and I think that perhaps maybe starting with having other secondary members tell us their backstories could help make things easier for us when our turn comes." The other four founding Titans looked each other in the eyes upon hearing Robin say this, for they could tell from his pause and the tone he'd now taken that he was now thinking about his deal.

Silence filled the air. "Well," said Terra. "When you put it that way, I guess it wouldn't be that bad if I let you guys into the loop." She took a deep breath, exhaled, and closed her eyes as she prepared herself to speak. Aqualad leaned back in his chair, both feeling happy that his friends were now willing to give her a chance again as well as proud of Terra for her willingness to let her former friends in on her past.

"Well here goes nothing," said Terra. "As Aqualad did manage to give away to you all yesterday, my father is the king of Markovia."

"What exactly is this Markovia place?" Starfire asked.

"I was actually wondering the same thing myself now that I think about it," said Beast Boy.

"It's this small monarchy country in Europe located between France, Belgium, and Luxembourg; very obscure place actually," said Terra.

"Not sure if I've heard of it," said Cyborg. "Heck, I'm not sure if I've ever even seen it on any maps . . ."

"Not very many people have," Robin stated. "Like Terra just said, it's very obscure."

"Just how obscure?" Beast Boy asked.

"Well for one, it's small," Terra responded. "Really not that impressive size-wise. Easily overshadowed by its neighbor countries, especially France. Also, Markovia is surrounded on every inch of its borders by a large ring of mountains. These mountains, while impressive to look at and useful as a defensive barrier in times of trouble, they also put a pretty big limit on how much tourism the country gets, not to mention makes it more than a little difficult for map makers to actually visit it themselves and chart it on world maps."

"I'll say," said Cyborg.

"And just as obscure the country is to the outside world, Markovia is also not the most up to date on what's been happening outside its borders either. As difficult as it is for outside visitors to enter, it's just as difficult, if not more so, for the natives to leave. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if there are any people there who still don't even know that the Cold War is over, or even World War II."

Beast Boy shuddered. "I know I don't have the best grasp of history, but even _I_ know that those two wars ended _years_ ago."

"So they did," said Raven.

"Correct," said Terra. "But enough of that, time I talk about me."

The former geomancer took a deep breath and exhaled as if to prepare herself. "Like I said, Markovia is a monarchy, and the current king is my father. And not only is he my father, but he also has two sons. The eldest, Gregor, has been named the heir and is set to take the throne as the next king. My other brother, Bryan, meanwhile, is a high ranking soldier in the Markovian military."

"So basically, you're a princess," said Starfire.

"Well . . ." said Terra with a clear awkwardness in her tone. "Not quite . . ."

"What do you mean?" asked Beast Boy.

For a few minutes, there was no response at all from Terra. "You don't have to tell them if you don't want to," said Aqualad. He himself had been told by Terra about what she was now seemingly having trouble getting herself to say, and he was sure that Terra would appreciate being allowed the chance to avoid digging into the matter considering how rather uncomfortable it was.

"It's fine Aqualad," said Terra. "I appreciate the concern thank you, but your friends deserve to know." She took a deep breath, exhaled, and then said calmly, "Well, here's the thing. Gregor and Bryan are the legitimate trueborn children of the current king and queen of Markovia. I, on the other hand, was produced . . . um . . . behind closed doors?"

Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg all found the same stunned, wide-eyed look of shock coming on their faces at the sound of that last statement. Beast Boy actually briefly wondered, in spite of is enhanced hearing, if he'd perhaps heard wrong. Even Raven looked visibly shocked, her face seemingly turning completely white. "By Azar," the sorceress thought to herself in shock as she registered the undertone in Terra's comment.

For a brief few moments, Starfire was silent, clearly confused. Her fellow Titans started feeling very nervous, neither of them wanting to have to go into detail about the matter.

"Oh!" said Starfire as if she'd now managed to figure something out. "So you are an ooozgak!"

Terra, Aqualad, and Starfire's fellow founding Titans were caught more than a little off guard by this quite unexpected comment. "A what now?" Terra asked.

"An ooozgak," Starfire responded in a tone that sounded as if she were stating a common fact. "It is the word in the native language of Tamaran that is used to refer to a child born from an unlawful union."

For a brief few minutes, the Tamaranean girl's peers were left quite speechless, not a single one of them having any idea just what they were supposed to say in response to what Starfire had just said.

"Ok . . . then . . .?" Robin managed to state.

"Well it's certainly a more family friendly word to use then it's English translation," Cyborg noted.

"Indeed," Terra managed to state. "Well uh . . . ok then! I'm an oozgak!" In seconds, the four boys promptly started laughing in half nervousness and half genuine humor. Raven allowed a small smirk of amusement come on her face. Starfire, on the other hand, was seemingly glowing with happiness.

"Well anyway," Terra continued, eager to get back on track. "Yeah, my father is the king of Markovia, and my mother was an American journalist who happened to be visiting Markovia on an assignment.

"I thought you said Markovia didn't get tourism," said Beast Boy.

"I said it has _limited_ tourism," Terra explained. "I never said that it never had any visitors from outside its borders. But never mind that, back to my story."

Terra took another deep breath. "My mother saw my father for the first time when she was in the audience that had gathered in the front courtyard of the castle for a speech. And when this speech was over, she went to have an interview with him. Now at the time, my father and the queen had recently had a rather heated spat, and as a result, over the course of the interview, one thing led to another; and before long, they'd begun privately having an affair. It wasn't until my mother was impregnated when they both realized just what they'd done. And things got even more complicated when I was born. My mother actually ended up having to leave to return to America after her assignment reached its end date. Thankfully, my father was able to raise me from infancy all the way up to when I was 10-years old."

"And the queen _let_ him do it?!" Cyborg asked.

"Don't get your gears all overheated," said Terra. "The queen didn't know that I was actually her husband's child with another woman. The cover story that my father gave was that I was an orphan that he'd decided to raise himself as an act of goodwill."

Terra took another deep breath. "Like I said, I lived in the castle with the royal family of Markovia for 10 years. I actually grew pretty close with Bryan. Gregor . . . well . . . he kind of had a neutral opinion about me, and for a time the queen just accepted me being present. But then, about a month after my 10th birthday, the queen began to get suspicious about my parentage, and my father became very aware that it would soon be very difficult to keep things under wraps and prevent a scandal from unfolding because of me. Bryan actually _knew_ the truth since he'd managed to read between the lines while observing our father's interactions with me one day, and my father and I both knew he could be trusted with secrets thanks to both his training in the Markovian military, and the fact that he'd sided with dad during his fallout with the queen. Gregor, on the other hand, was 100% loyal to the queen, and he already had a neutral opinion of tolerance towards me anyway.

"Eventually, a solution presented itself in the form of my mother's sister and her husband. My mother had told them about me, and they were willing to take me to America with them and raise me themselves. My father was perfectly willing to accept their help, for my standing with the queen was beginning to get on increasingly perilous ground, and he knew that if the queen ever did find out the truth about me, I would be killed. So they had an off the record meeting with my father while Gregor and the queen were away for a diplomatic meeting with one of the local barons, and it was during that meeting that my father arranged for them to take custody of me and set things up for my departure. And so, I was able to quietly leave Markovia and move to America, and my father was able to avoid dealing with a scandal."

Terra paused for a moment. "And now, here I am, still living in America."

"I'll say," said Beast Boy. Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg likewise seemed impressed with the point that the story had reached.

Raven, however, had her eyebrow raised in a mixture of confusion and suspicion. "You said that you started living with your maternal aunt and uncle?"

"That's correct."

"What happened to them?" Raven asked. "Why weren't you still living with them when we first met you?"

"Oh yes, I almost forgot," said Terra. "Well to be honest, I lived with them happily without incident until about a month or two after my 13th birthday."

"What happened then?" Cyborg asked.

"My powers," Terra responded. "And before I continue, I'd best let you know right now that I was actually kind of only telling half the truth when I said that I remembered everything about my life yesterday. Granted, I do remember everything about my life with you guys and all the other big details regarding my life from before I got petrified. But there are still some bits and pieces of my life story that my mind is still a little fuzzy on, so forgive me when I say that I may very well be unable to answer some of your questions."

"I understand," Robin stated patiently. "Just take your time, and feel free to tell us what you can and wish to tell."

Terra nodded her head up and down. "Ok then." She took a deep breath, exhaled once again, and steeled herself for the next segment for her story.

"I don't remember for certain just where my powers originated from," Terra began. "All I know for certain is that I wasn't born with them. Don't ask me how I know that in spite of my fuzzy memory; I just know. Anyway," she took another deep breath, "my powers first started to manifest a week after my 13th birthday when I was unexpectedly caused a small group of pebbles in the backyard of my aunt and uncle's house. At first, I was actually pretty excited, and so were my guardians. And my excitement only increased when I later found myself able to control larger rocks, mud, dust, sand, and several other earth-based elements. I was even able to cause small vibrations in the ground whenever I stomped my feet hard enough. Pretty much the only earth associated thing I couldn't control was plant life."

Terra sighed wistfully as she remembered the nostalgic feeling of joy she'd felt as she'd been in the midst of discovering her abilities. "Over time though," she then continued. "My excitement later turned to fear when my powers started to show signs of becoming increasingly difficult for me to keep under control. It started with my having difficulty getting the rocks and pebbles I levitated to stop levitating and return to the ground, and then I got even more terrified when the rocks seemingly started to develop a mind of their own and resist my mental urges to just get them to move in the direction I wanted them to go." The Jump City Titans gulped, and looked each other in the eyes. They could already tell where the story would go from there.

"Things only got worse over the days that followed," said Terra. "My powers started to manifest without my even trying to activate them. Pebbles, larger rocks, and even boulders started vibrating like crazy in my presence, almost as if they were struggling to break free from invisible chains and rocket up into the sky. Stalagmites started randomly bursting out of the ground in various areas, sometimes bursting up literally inches in front of my guardians or other people, and sometimes spouting up right behind me mere seconds after stepping off the areas in question that I'd just stepped on. Then the sand started going haywire around me, and before long, I couldn't even go to the beach or go hiking in the desert anymore without sand geysers, cave-ins, or even full on sandstorms occurring. Then I was forced to keep myself away from mountains. Literally every time I so much as took a single foot step within an inch of a mountain, I would always end up causing a rock slide, cave in, or some other disaster."

Terra then hung her head, seemingly on the verge of tears. "But the worst thing by far happened when the seismic accidents began to occur."

"Your footsteps," said Starfire.

"Yes," Terra stated, now very nearly on the verge of tears. "Vibrations started occurring at far lighter footsteps then the kind that usually caused them. Sometimes I literally had to tiptoe just to be able to walk two steps without risking a vibration or something worse."

Terra hung her head. "And then . . ." her voice broke, "on the last day of school that year before summer vacation, I was in literally the last class for that day when some of the other students started very vocally teasing me about the way I walked. I tried to ignore them and not let the teasing get to me, I really did. But then, they just kept getting worse and worse, more and more cruel, and dug deeper and deeper under my skin, that I eventually couldn't take it anymore. I snapped, completely lost my temper, stood straight up from my desk, and started yelling savagely like some berserk maniac. I actually scared literally every single one of the bullies with just my yelling alone. But then, after I finished yelling, I then, just to emphasize my point, proceeded, like an idiot, completely without even thinking, to lift up my right foot and stomp it down on the floor literally as hard as I could."

Terra took a noticeably long pause, at this point now fighting so hard to keep herself from bursting into tears right then and there that her face was quivering. "It all went to Hell from there, worse than it ever had before. The instant my foot touched the floor, the ground started violently shaking, stronger than I'd ever caused in my life, an all-out earthquake."

"Oh my God," said Beast Boy.

Terra sniffled. "I remember it almost as if it were yesterday. We were all so terrified, doing exactly as we were told to do in an earthquake drill. But as time passed, things got worse and worse; and eventually, I found myself just losing it, bawling like a baby, letting go of the legs of my desk, and slamming my fists on the floor again and again senselessly yelling at the ground to stop. I don't even know how many times I yelled 'stop,' but before long, literally as a large crack was forming in the center of the room as if forming a large fissure and inches away from completion, the earthquake just . . . stopped. By the time it was deemed safe for us to move, I was the only person who didn't move from where I was. I just curled myself up into a ball, placed my head in my hands, and started sobbing like a baby. No one could get a single intelligible word out of me. And eventually, my aunt and uncle managed to arrive at the school and they had to literally carry me out of the school all the way to their car before driving me back to their house."

Terra sniffled, closed her eyes as if trying to fight her increasingly strong urge to cry. "That night, I decided that I'd had enough. At that point, I was convinced that I couldn't stay with them anymore. I had seen and experienced firsthand how much harm I was capable of causing, and I'd seen the way the kids were all looking at me after the earthquake was over. They'd been teasing me before the quake, but now every single one of them was mindless with fear as they looked at me. And I just couldn't stand putting everyone at risk or being looked at in fear as if I were a monster anymore. And eventually, my aunt and uncle reluctantly agreed, and they helped get me packed and prepared for living out in the nearby desert, the only place I was certain I could live on my own without being outright guaranteed to cause trouble to people."

The Jump City Titans were speechless with shock, horror, sadness, and sympathy as they heard all this. But they didn't dare interrupt; Terra's story had hooked them too well, and they also had a feeling that Terra wasn't finished.

"A few days after I began living in the desert, I soon noticed that my powers were no longer spontaneously activating without my even trying to activate them. My guess is that they had been reacting to my increasingly high sense of fear, and that now that I was no longer so afraid of causing destruction and harm, I had managed to regain at least a small bit of control. But even though my powers were no longer acting like they had a mind of their own so frequently, I still didn't have full control over them. And every time I tried to either team up with someone or save people on my own, some sort of accident always occurred involving my powers. I'll admit, I probably could have controlled them better if I'd just been able to get myself to keep calm. But every time I started feeling as if I was starting to lose control, I just flat out panicked and tried to force whatever I was causing with my powers to stop, and as a result only made it worse."

Terra sighed again. "For an entire year I lived like that on my own in that cave in the desert that I mentioned when we first met. But then, at age 14, about a month before my 15th birthday actually, I met you guys and . . . well . . . you know how that worked out. How I . . . how I . . . how I . . ."

At that moment, Terra completely lost it. Within seconds, Terra had placed her head on her hands and started crying right there in her compartment. As the other six Titans listened to this, unable to do anything do to being forcibly separated by the design of their respective ships, they all found themselves feeling quite sorry for the poor girl. Aqualad and Starfire, in particular, wanted more than anything to get inside Terra's compartment and give her a hug. Cyborg and Robin also wanted to at least give Terra a comforting pat on the back or a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Beast Boy was now feeling very internally conflicted as to whether or not he wanted to comfort Terra or hold true to his wish to listen to his instincts and his own wish to not be too quick to completely trust her just yet. Even Raven had a clearly sympathetic look on her face, for she herself knew painfully well how it felt for her abilities to be influenced by emotions and to be afraid of her own power. In that instant, it was almost as if the horrible crimes Terra had committed against them three years ago had never happened.

Eventually, Terra managed to stop crying, and with a final sniffle, and a wipe of her hand across her face to sweep away the remaining moisture, she stated, "I'm sorry about that. I really am. I don't know what got into me there."

"It's fine," said Robin. "You're only human. It would be perfectly natural to act the way you just did in the face of that kind of tragic trip down memory lane."

"Indeed it would," Starfire agreed. The other Titans were quick to agree; Aqualad vehemently so.

Then Robin turned his head to look directly ahead, and his eyes widened behind his mask at the sight of what appeared to be in the distance directly in front of both of the two T-ships. "Um guys?" he stated worriedly.

"So Terra," said Beast Boy, seemingly oblivious to what Robin had just said. "Is that all?"

Terra thought to herself. "Well, I can't really think of anything else about my past right now that I wouldn't think worth talking about right now, let alone _would_ think worth telling you guys about at the moment. But some of the stuff I told you about just now were things that I myself found fuzzy when I first woke back up when I was released from petrification. And that being said, I'm sure that the rest of my memories should come back with time, especially now that I'm actively associating with and spending time with you guys again."

"Um guys?" Robin asked, now sounding even more worried than before.

"So yeah," said Terra as she turned her head in the direction of the Jump City Titans T-ship. "If I do manage to remember anything else, I'll be sure to let you know if I'm willing to talk about it."

"Guys?" Robin asked, now sounding slightly annoyed as well as worried.

"Sounds cool," said Beast Boy. "Take your time."

"Yes please," said Starfire in agreement.

"Word," Raven droned.

"What they said," Cyborg added.

"Guys." Robin growled, now far more annoyed then worried.

"Go ahead and take your time Terra," said Aqualad. "Like they just said more or less, we can afford to wait. I'm certainly willing to let this conversation be revisited at a later date."

"Well that's good," Robin stated bluntly. "Because right now, it looks like we've got company."

. . . . .

At the sound of that last statement, the other Titans turned their heads to face the area in front of them and their ships. And in doing so, they finally noticed the ominous sight in the distance that Robin had been trying to call their attention to. Aqualad, in particular, actually paled at the sight, for despite the fact that they hadn't gotten close enough to get a full view of exactly the apparent obstacle, the silhouettes in the now not quite as long distance looked familiar enough to him from two days prior for him to have a very good idea what was now flying around in front of the two T-ships.

"No, no, no," Aqualad moaned. "Not those things again. Anything but those things."

"What are you talking about?" Beast Boy asked.

"Beast Boy," said Raven. "Remember how Aqualad told us about his being waylaid in the sky on his way to Jump City?"

"Yes but, what does that have to do with . . .?" The changeling stopped talking, his eyes widened as he remembered one particular detail about the Atlantean boy's story from the previous day, and he looked back towards the large mass of flying silhouettes in front of the two flying ships. The shapes in question were now starting to get much closer in proximity to the two vessels. And they were now already close enough for all seven of the teenagers to get a good look at them. And upon direct sight of the massive flock of chimp-sized creatures with stony gray hairless skin and bat-like wings flying straight towards them, it took only seconds for the Titans to recognize them from the description Aqualad had given them before.

"Gargoyles," said Raven. "A whole flock of them."

"This group's even bigger than the one that attacked me before," Aqualad noted.

"How the heck did they know we'd be coming here?" Cyborg asked.

"Either they were already in the area," Robin suggested. "Or more likely, the same person who sent them before must have become aware of Aqualad managing to escape from that sea monster and get us involved and decided to arrange a little trap for us." Robin looked back at the oncoming mass of gargoyles. "And judging from Aqualad's comment just now, whoever sent them clearly doesn't want to take any more chances."

"But why this area?" Starfire asked. "Why didn't they attack us back at the city of Jump?"

"Hold on," said Robin as he pressed a few keys on the computer monitor within his compartment. "Cyborg, can you access the mapping system?"

"Sure thing," said Cyborg, who then fulfilled Robin's request. Robin looked intently at the newly opened up map. "Ok, we appear to be flying right over the great plains region of America right now."

"Isn't that like the exact middle of the United States?" asked Terra.

"Indeed it is," Robin confirmed. "And that must be why the gargoyles were sent to attack us here. That way, if we are successfully waylaid by them, we'll be too far from Jump City to get convenient aid as fast as possible, and if we successfully make our way through this trap, we'll still have been delayed long enough for whoever sent them to set up a back-up plan before we reach Steel City."

Beast Boy whistled. "If they were on the same side, this dude and Mento would probably get along surprisingly well."

"Who the devil is Mento?" asked Terra.

"More important things to worry about right now Terra," said Robin.

"He's right," Cyborg suddenly yelled. "THEY'RE ALMOST ON US!"

"What?!" Terra yelled before she turned her head back in the gargoyle flock's direction . . . and promptly screamed her head off at the sight of the front line of the flock practically inches away from ramming into the T-ships.

"Pull up! Pull up!" Robin barked as he and Aqualad hurriedly pulled on the elevation levers and caused the two ships to rear up and zoom upwards in time to avoid getting crashed into by the massive flock of gargoyles. The beasts skidded to a halt, a bunch of them crashing into each other as a result of their momentum. Then one gargoyle whose horns seemed more of a platinum white instead of the pewter black horns of the others looked upward towards the ships and emitted a series of grunting squawks before then turning itself around and flying up towards the underside of the Jump City T-Ship with its taloned finger nails extended and the rest of the gargoyles following close behind, furiously flapping their wings, and screeching and growling savagely.

"Ok," said Beast Boy. "Looks like white horns over there is the leader."

"Thank you for summing that up," Robin hissed sarcastically.

"They're still gaining on us," Aqualad noted as he looked down towards the gargoyles from his compartment.

"Not trying to escape them," said Robin.

"What do you mean you're not trying to . . .?" Terra began.

"Hold on . . ." Robin growled, only for the gargoyles to then reach about a couple yards or so away from the underside of the T-ship, and through that for the Boy Wonder to abruptly shout, "Titans! Corkscrew maneuver now!"

In a flash, all five of the Jump City Titans pulled on their controls in the appropriate direction, and the T-Ship initiated a barrel roll. The gargoyles at the very front lines of the flock had no chance of getting away; and thus a large majority of them were sent flying off to the sides or plummeting all the way down to the ground upon getting smacked by the wings of the rapidly rotating T-ship. The gargoyles that hit the ground landed with such force that they burst into countless unrecognizable chunks of rock upon impact. The gargoyles that were sufficiently positioned far enough in the back to get fair warning forced themselves to halt, snarling in rage at the spinning aerial vessel.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Beast Boy groaned.

"Stop the maneuver titans," said Robin. "I think we got enough of them."

The Titans ended the barrel roll. "Ok Robin," said Cyborg. "Now what . . .?"

The sound of a massive crash and crunching of metal from directly underneath the Jump City T-Ship brought a crashing halt to Cyborg's question. Raven hurriedly activated a camera feature that would allow her to view the area beneath the ship, only to find a small group of gargoyles latched onto the underside of the ship, directly beneath each of the Jump City Titans' five compartments, that were now screeching and growling with their yellow eyes narrowed menacingly as they scratched at the metallic surface with their taloned finger nails, kicked at the surface with their rabbit-like feet, even bit at the metal barriers with their parrot-like beaks.

"They're trying to make us fall!" Beast Boy shouted.

Robin looked over to the areas where some of the other gargoyles latched onto the ship's underside were gathering. "Um Beast Boy," he began. "I don't think that's the only thing they're trying to . . ."

The Boy Wonder's sentence was effectively interrupted when one of the gargoyles latched onto a different area of the ship managed to rip a large sheet of metal, and what looked like a rifle dropped out. The gargoyle responsible hooted in what appeared to be delight before it then grabbed onto the base connecting the gun-like object to the interior of its compartment.

"They're trying to take out the blasters to!" Cyborg yelled.

"This just keeps getting better and better," Raven droned to herself.

Fortunately, in their eagerness to swarm the Jump City Titans, the gargoyles completely ignored the ship that Terra and Aqualad were in, and the blonde former geomancer soon came up with an idea.

"Aqualad," she stated. "Does this ship have blasters?"

"Yes," said Aqualad. "But what does that have to do with . . .?"

"Leave this to me," said Terra. She pressed a button on her compartment's computer monitor, and a rifle-like object very similar to the ones that the gargoyles were working to expose and destroy on the Jump City T-ship deployed from its compartment directly underneath the 'nose' of the Titans East T-ship. "Hang on!" Terra then yelled, before she then abruptly swerved the Titans East ship to the left and slightly downwards.

Once she had the blue ship directly underneath the orange one, Terra jerked to a stop and positioned the ship she and Aqualad were in so that it was diagonally facing upwards towards the orange ship, and the gargoyles. "Keep us steady Aqualad," said Terra.

"Terra what are you doing?!" Aqualad yelled.

"Just trust me on this! I've got it covered," Terra snapped as she worked to get the sights set on her intended target.

"Ok," said Aqualad fearfully as he steadied the Titans East ship. No sooner was this task completed, when Terra managed to catch one of the gargoyles latched directly underneath the floor of Robin's compartment within the crosshairs of the blaster she'd deployed.

"Lights on," Terra stated smugly before she then fired.

With a loud bang, the resulting laser blast fired from the blaster Terra had deployed struck the gargoyle she'd aimed at right in the back with a small explosion of smoke. The stricken gargoyle groaned in pain, closed its yellow eyes, and outstretched its wings in a useless reflexive action before it then lost its grip and started falling straight down. As it fell, it eventually froze in a huddled up position as it seemingly turned completely to stone. The resulting stone statue burst into fragments upon landing.

"What was that?" Robin yelled. He had heard the blast and felt a small bit of the impact as a result of the gargoyle's position.

"Nothing to worry," said Terra, "just move slowly so that I can get the rest of them in sight."

"What are you talking about . . .?"

"Just do it!"

"If you say so," Robin growled, before he started slowly moving the ship around in random directions as Terra requested. And within minutes, she'd managed to blast all the gargoyles latched onto the underside of the Jump City T-ship, one by one, off of their positions and sent them plummeting down to Earth, with every single one of the luckless beasts turning to stone mid-fall and shattering upon contact with the ground.

"Were clear," stated Raven the instant the last of the gargoyles was blasted off of the underside of the ship.

"Got it," said Robin. "Everyone, activate the underside reflector shields now! And that applies to you and Terra as well Aqualad!"

"Acknowledged!" Aqualad yelled as he and the other teens proceeded to activate the underside reflector shields for their respective ships. Seconds after the shields activated, a small group of gargoyles attempted to ram the bottom of the Titans East ship and were sent flying backwards when they ended up slamming face-first into a small field of light blue energy that abruptly materialized directly between the gargoyles and the underside of the ship.

"Ha! Take that you losers!" Beast Boy yelled.

"Don't get too comfortable," said Robin. "There's still a lot more where those came from."

"Geez, no need to be a killjoy," Beast Boy grumbled.

"Here they come again!" Cyborg yelled.

"Everyone, deploy blasters, now!" Robin shouted.

In a flash, all the blasters of both ships were deployed, and the Titans started moving the two ships around and firing their blasters at the gargoyles. A sizable number of the stony skinned monsters went down in flames; but for every one gargoyle blasted out of the sky, there were several more present to take the place of their fallen brethren.

"This is insane!" Robin yelled as he blasted another dozen gargoyles into dust.

"Tell me about it," Cyborg grumbled as he let fly his own blasters at several more gargoyles.

"Story of our lives," Raven droned as she almost contemptuously fired her own blasters.

"You said it Rae," Beast Boy growled as he too fired his blasters.

"Friends!" Starfire suddenly yelled in a fearful tone. "Aqualad and Terra! They are in trouble!"

In a flash, the other four Titans looked where the Tamaranean was pointing. And sure enough, Aqualad and Terra were in very real trouble. Right at that very moment, a large bunch of the gargoyles had swarmed around on the topside of the ship to the point that whole bunches of them were clambering around on the windows covering the compartments. Beast Boy could even hear Terra's screams of terror as the monsters banged their fists on the glass separating them from her, and could even hear the sound of the glass starting to crack.

"We gotta do something!" Beast Boy howled.

"You got that right," said Robin. "Titans! Separate!"

The Titans pressed the appropriate buttons on their compartment's computer monitors, and with a mechanical hiss, the Jump City T-ship split into five parts, one for each compartment. "Alright team," said Robin. "Follow my lead." He steered his compartment to face the left side of the Titans East T-ship and flew off towards it, the other four Titans jetting along behind him. As they made it closer to the other ship, Robin barked out, "Fire at will!"

In complete unison, all five of the Jump City Titans opened fire at the gargoyles swarming the Titans East T-Ship with their blasters. The fiendish beasts didn't stand a chance, and were one by one either blasted straight to dust or sent plummeting to their doom.

Once all the gargoyles were blasted off of the Titans East ship, Terra placed her hand over her heart and started gasping in a mixture of terror and relief. Then she looked in the direction of her five direct former team mates with a 'thumbs up' directed towards them. "Thanks!" she yelled. "I owe you one!"

"No problem," said Robin. "Alright team, now we form a protective circle around the Titans East ship! Cyborg, take the tail! Raven, right wing! Starfire, left wing! Beast Boy, take the skyward side! As for me, I'll be up front."

"Acknowledged!" Beast Boy yelled. "Move out!"

The titans promptly took their positions as Robin had commanded, and from their newfound vantage points, began firing at the gargoyles while moving in line with the Titans East T-Ship to keep it protected and well-guarded from the aerial assailants. And for quite some time, the Titans continued to ward off the gargoyles with the blasters from their respective ship segments.

"Yeah! Take that you pebble brains!" Cyborg yelled as he mercilessly blasted laser after laser at the gargoyles flying after him, all while propelling his compartment backwards so as to keep a good eye on the gargoyles attempting to attack from where he was positioned.

Directly above the Titans East T-Ship, Beast Boy was hardly acting any more mature than Cyborg at the moment. "Die! Die! Die!" He barked gleefully as the lasers he fired from his blasters sent gargoyle after gargoyle plummeting from the sky.

"Boys," Raven whispered to herself in a deadpan tone as she kept her own focus maintained on blasting away at the gargoyles.

Starfire, however, soon found herself getting increasingly worried as she continued to fire her own laser blasters at the gargoyles attacking from her position. "Robin," she stated nervously. "Are you sure that there is enough ammunition within our blasters to take out all these monsters?"

"There'd better be," Robin snarled as he himself focused on shooting the gargoyles attacking from his own position.

"And if there isn't?" Raven asked pointedly.

Robin was about to snap back at Raven, but then he paused as he considered the matter. "Fair point," he admitted. "How much more can our blasters do before they need to recharge?"

"I'm not sure," Cyborg admitted nervously after taking a look at his blasters' power gauges. "Maybe half power at best, and that's just being optimistic."

"You certainly know that kind of task better than me," Raven droned.

"I'm good," said Beast Boy. "Mine are still at 75%. Says so right on my monitor screen."

"Oh the irony," Cyborg stated dryly.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Beast Boy yelled.

"Guys, not now," said Robin. "Alright Beast Boy, you keep firing your blasters and leave your compartment on manual piloting. The rest of us, set to auto-pilot, lower your window hatches, and let them have it with everything you can shoot at them without firing your blasters."

"You mean like my sonic cannon?" Cyborg asked.

"That, star bolts, eye beams, shadow blasts, explosive disks, whatever!" Robin barked. "Just throw it at them! We need to give our blasters time to recharge!"

"If you say so," Cyborg said before he and the other Jump City Titans proceeded to set straight to work on what Robin had ordered for them to do. Within seconds, the already chaotic sky was further brightened up by the sight of fiery explosions, beams of blue light, bursts of green flames and lasers, and all manner of shadowy energy constructs; all interspersed with blaster fire from Beast Boy's blasters.

For quite a good while, this strategy proved very effective. But eventually, it began to become increasingly clear that it still wouldn't be enough.

"There's still too many of them!" Starfire screamed in fear as she began to become increasingly more desperate and hurried in her blasts.

"Tell me something I don't know!" Cyborg snapped as he shot down another small squadron of gargoyles with a burst from his sonic cannon. The electronic beep that emitted from Cyborg's left arm immediately afterward, and the small message he saw pop up on a screen showing that he was now at 50% in power level did not help his mood.

"There's gotta be some way we can take out all of them more effectively," Robin groaned to himself as he continued to throw whatever projectile gadget he could get his hands on at his assailants.

"Well whatever it is," Raven droned immediately after sending a small group of gargoyles flying backward with a small wave of shadow energy. "We clearly haven't found it yet . . ."

Raven was then interrupted with a shriek as her compartment was abruptly sent in a vertical spinning cartwheel maneuver by a gargoyle landing a direct dive bombing hit on the left portion of the wing her compartment was attached to.

"Raven!" Robin and Beast Boy shouted.

As Raven and her compartment were sent hurtling around out of control, the teen sorceress was just barely able to close the hatch before a small group of gargoyles slammed themselves onto the compartment and started beating at it in an effort to take her out.

Terra gulped in fear at the sight of what was now happening to Raven. "This is so not good," she whimpered. Aqualad, Cyborg, Robin, and Starfire gulped in agreement.

Beast Boy, however, had other ideas on his mind. "That's it, no more Mr. Nice Guy," he growled, as he pressed a button that caused his original blasters to retract and be replaced by a considerably larger blaster that looked more like a sizable rotating barrel machine gun. He turned his compartment to face Raven's direction, the massive blaster pointing straight at the gargoyles in the process.

He almost punched a lever into position that caused the blaster ammo strength at 'maximum power'. "You're gonna wish you'd stayed nocturnal you freaks!" Beast Boy howled before he then proceeded to mercilessly open fire at the gargoyles ganging up on Raven's compartment. Within seconds, all but one of the gargoyles that had been in the midst of the all-out assault on Raven's compartment were blasted instantaneously to dust upon contact with the first laser blast to strike them. The one gargoyle still alive at the end only had enough time to turn its head and shriek fearfully at the sight of what had just killed its brethren before it to was struck by a burst of yellow energy and consumed in a fiery blast.

With the last of her assailants gone, Raven briefly looked out the window, panting in relief and exhaustion, and then looked over towards Beast Boy before saying, "Thanks, I owe you one."

"No problem Rae," Beast Boy yelled happily.

"It's . . . Raven . . .," Raven said tiredly in an almost relieved tone of voice.

"So it is," Terra said in a slightly nervous tone. She wasn't entirely certain right now just what to think in regard to how considerably angry and more protective he'd acted in blasting at the gargoyles that had just not too long ago been swarming Raven then he had in blasting at all the other gargoyles from before that moment.

Oblivious to what Terra had just said, Beast Boy happened to take a short glance at his monitor screen, only for his heart to sink at the sight of how much power he had left before his blasters would need to recharge.

"Crud," he growled to himself. "25%." He looked over at the sizable number of gargoyles that even now still remained. "Better make these last shots count." He retracted the massive machine gun-like blaster he'd just used to help out Raven, re-deployed the original rifle-like blasters, and started to direct his aim randomly towards the gargoyles when he abruptly had a thought that caused his eyes to widen.

"Wait a minute," he said to himself. He hurriedly looked around the area at all the gargoyles, and found his eyes widening further in both surprise and delight at the fact that the silvery white-horned gargoyle he'd earlier guessed to be the leader of the flock still alive and among the rest of the group.

"Boy he's one tough cookie," Beast Boy stated with a smug grin and chuckle. He then pointed his blasters straight at the white horned gargoyle. "Let's see how loyal your followers are after I do this," said the changeling before sending a small burst of yellow energy hurtling at the supposed leader of the gargoyle flock.

The gargoyle in question had just lifted his left fist strike at Aqualad's window hatch when Beast Boy's blast struck him right in the back. The beast reared back, howling in pain as it felt the burning sensation on its back.

"Hey Rock Head!"

The gargoyle turned its head in the direction it had heard the yell, and its yellow eyes narrowed at the sight of Beast Boy hovering nearby in his compartment.

"Like your new tan?" Beast Boy shouted.

The white horned gargoyle roared in rage, and then turned its head in random directions while issuing a rapid fire stream of furious barking squawks. The other gargoyles turned their heads towards the silver horned one upon hearing its calls, and then looked straight over to Beast Boy at the sight of their leader pointing in his direction, and snarled at the sight of him.

"Yeah that's right Granite Brains!" Beast Boy howled in apparent joy. "I want you all looking at me!"

"Beast Boy, what are you doing?!" Terra shouted.

"Are you insane?!" Cyborg yelled.

"Trust me!" Beast Boy yelled back. "I've got this covered!" He then directed his attention back at the gargoyles, lowered his compartment's window hatch, made a mocking gesture at them, and then yelled, "Try and catch me Sand Face!"

The white horned gargoyle emitted an ear splitting roar of rage before then clenching its fists, tensing its legs, and leaning over as if preparing itself to jump. Seconds later, the gargoyle leaped upwards and into the air, with the rest of the gargoyles taking to the air within seconds afterward.

"Yeah! Come and get me!" Beast Boy yelled before he then gunned the controls of his compartment and went rocketing forward and ahead of the other Titans, with literally every single one of the gargoyles remaining flapping along behind him in hot pursuit.

As the other Titans, plus Terra and Aqualad, watched this unfold, Terra eventually stated, "What the heck is he thinking?"

"Whatever he's doing," Robin stated. "He'd better have a good reason behind it."

Meanwhile, as the gargoyles continued to fly after him, Beast Boy made a point at haphazardly firing his blaster at the white horned gargoyle at random intervals, each blast striking it in the face and making it even angrier and angrier, and thus ensuring that it kept itself and its brethren focused entirely on the changeling instead of going back to take care of the other Titans.

"One more shot," Beast Boy said before letting loose with the last bit of energy his blasters had left before triggering automatic recharge mode. Just like the other blasts that had been fired before this one, this last blast hit the alpha gargoyle straight in the face, and it roared savagely.

"And now it's show time," Beast Boy before abruptly slamming the brakes and causing his compartment to lurch to a stop, briefly tilting downward in a diagonal slant as a result. In doing so, the entire underside of Beast Boy's compartment was placed straight in front of the oncoming swarm of gargoyles, and the leader had just enough time for its yellow eyes to widen in shock and for it to emit a stunned shriek before it crashed into the underside reflector shield and sent it bouncing right back into its brethren, causing a mass pile up right behind Beast Boy's compartment.

Chuckling at the sight of what he'd just caused with his well-timed braking, he set his compartment into 'hover' mode, lowered the hatch of his compartment, and unbuckled his seatbelt before turning into a pteranodon and taking to the air. When the gargoyles all managed to regain their bearings, they heard the sound of a partially reptilian and partially avian shriek coming from above them, and they looked upwards in time to see Beast Boy hovering above them in his pteranodon form. The green pterosaur then looked the leader straight in the eyes and proceeded to blow a raspberry at it.

The white horned gargoyle howled in fury at the insulting gesture, and started flying upwards towards the offending green pterosaur with its brethren loyally following along close behind it. The pteranodon turned away and flew upward itself. And as the gargoyles continued to chase after him, Beast Boy made a point to fly randomly in all sorts of directions, with the gargoyles following him every single time. Then, right as the other Titans were really starting to wonder what the point was behind his current behavior, Beast Boy started flying straight upwards higher and higher, with the gargoyles flying upwards in the same direction directly underneath him.

For what seemed like an eternity, Beast Boy the pteranodon continued to fly upward higher and higher, with all the gargoyles stubbornly following him from underneath. And throughout the entire time, Beast Boy kept staring upward towards the sun, thinking to himself, "Come on, come on, just a little higher, just a little higher."

The other Titans, plus Terra and Aqualad, watched the whole scene unfold from the exact area they'd been in already before Beast Boy began his at first seemingly harebrained scheme. Terra whistled in a mixture of awe and shock. "Sheesh that's high," she stated.

"I'll say," said Aqualad. "I'm sure any Atlantean would have a heart attack _that_ high above sea level."

"Whatever he's planning," said Robin. "It sure is getting serious."

"No kidding," said Cyborg. "A fall from that kind of height would allow for one serious crash."

At the sound of those words, Raven's eyes widened and her face froze in a look that clearly showed that she'd just had an epiphany, completely forgetting what she'd been about to say at first before hearing Cyborg's comment.

"Guys," she said. "I know what he's about to do."

Seconds later, before any of the other Titans had a chance to say anything in response, Beast Boy the pteranodon stopped his upward flight, flipped himself over so that he was staring down at the gargoyles with his talons and belly facing them, and then morphed into a blue whale. Within seconds, the humongously vast sea mammal dropped like a stone straight towards the column-oriented flock of gargoyles. And then, right as the giant green whale was practically inches above the gargoyles, the white horned gargoyle's yellow eyes widened in horror as it finally realized what was about to happen, and it emitted a piercing shriek of terror. But it was now too late for the gargoyles to get out of the way, and exact center of Beast Boy the blue whale's belly plowed right down on the white horned gargoyle and all the others at the very top of the column right as the silvery horned leader was only half finished with its shriek.

As Beast Boy continued to plummet downwards, more and more of the gargoyles were pummeled and pinned into falling down alongside him as more and more of their brethren above them were sent crashing into them by the weight of their own comrades. About half of the gargoyles attempted to fly away and managed to make it out from underneath their comrades, only to then end up pressed up against Beast Boy the blue whale's belly. Within seconds, all but 50 of the gargoyles had turned to stone, either from suffocating from being pressed up against each other or Beast Boy's belly, or crushed by the heavy weight crashing on top of them from above. And for a brief moment, the 50 gargoyles that still hadn't yet turned to stone struggled to untangle themselves from their now quite literally fallen brethren. But then they just happened to look straight downwards, and their yellow eyes widened in horror at the sight of what lay below them. And in that instant, both the gargoyles, and the other Titans watching from the safety of the two T-Ships, realized the same thing. Beast Boy and all the remaining gargoyles were now practically seconds away from crashing right down on the ground.

Clearly, Beast Boy himself was also aware of this, as he then turned into a hummingbird and flew away from the gigantic pile of gargoyles straight back to where he'd parked his compartment. Even though the 50 gargoyles that were still alive felt the pressure on them lessen from Beast Boy's abrupt departure from his earlier position, they were now too close to the ground to get away in time, and they had just enough time to unleash a despairing howl in unison before the entire group of them landed on the ground. And upon landing, every single one of the gargoyles within the massive pile exploded with a respectable 'bang' into an almost mushroom cloud-like eruption of dust and stony fragments.

For what seemed like an eternity, Terra, Aqualad, and the other Titans gaped at the area where all the remains of the gargoyles were now lying around. "Holy moly," Cyborg thought to himself. "I never would have thought the green bean would have it in him to pull something like this."

Then they were all snapped back to reality when they heard what sounded like some sort of mechanical honking noise. They all looked up and saw Beast Boy hovering over them all in his compartment.

"Well guys," he shouted out in a quite chipper tone of voice. "I just did a little estimation on the crime figures, and it seems there's been a drop!"

At the sound of this, Aqualad and the Jump City titans groaned. "Oh good grief Beast Boy," Robin grumbled to himself, giving himself a face palm for good measure.

Terra, on the other hand . . . "Oh come on! You gotta admit that's funny!"

The other Titans, wisely, decided not to press the issue.

 **And there you have it everyone! Once again, so sorry for the long wait! I promise, I'll keep trying my hardest to get my chapters completed and posted as quickly as I possibly can. But nonetheless, here's to hoping you enjoyed reading this new chapter and leave plenty of feedback (but again, NO FLAMES UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE!)! Once again, have fun!**


	6. Geo-Force

**Hey ya'll! Hope you're ready for more Teen Titan-ic awesomeness, because here's a new chapter! In this new addition to this current episode of the A-LionGleek exclusive Teen Titans season 6, Aqualad, Terra, and the Titans manage to arrive to Steel City in spite of their earlier delay from the gargoyles in time to find that Geo-Force has already left his mark on the city in his own literally earthshaking way. Before long, further chaos ensues over the course of the resulting battles. At this time, prepare to read, review, and ENJOY! (But definitely review, you guys kinda hurt my feelings by not giving any reviews for the previous chapter)**

 **A/N: But first, just to make sure my legal bases are covered, I do not own Teen Titans. Get it? Got it? Good. Onward with the story now!**

 **Chapter 5:**

 **Geo-Force**

Several hours later, at around 3:00 in the afternoon, the two T-Ships finally started flying the last few miles that remained between their occupants and Steel City. All seven of the teenagers were happy to have reached this point, as well as relieved that it hadn't taken more than one day to reach the city.

"Finally we made it," Beast Boy stated happily in an almost tired sounding tone.

"Yes indeed friend Beast Boy," agreed Starfire. "At last we have arrived at the City of Steel."

"Yeah that's right!" Cyborg yelled exuberantly, having used his compartment's built in recharge station to power himself back up after the battle with the gargoyles was over. "When we've got friends in danger, not even a pack of winged rocks can stop us!" Raven made a small growl, and rolled her eyes at Cyborg's comment.

"Thank Poseidon we made it," said Aqualad. "Oh how I hope the others are alright."

"Don't worry Aqualad," said Terra. "They should be fine. Like you said yesterday, Geo-Force needs them alive for his master."

"Terra's right," said Robin. He looked back ahead. "And not only that, but he needs you as well Aqualad. And that being said, not only are the rest of Titans East protected by Geo-Force needing them alive for his master, but he can also potentially be able to use them as leverage to get you to return to within sufficient range for him to apprehend you. And if he kills them, not only would he be disobeying his master, but he'd also leave you with somewhat not that much left to lose."

For a brief moment, Aqualad was completely silent as he digested this knowledge. "Thank you, for summing that up," he eventually stated slowly.

"Oh don't get me wrong," said Robin. "I'm not trying to discourage you; I just want to make sure you are fully aware of potential risks to look out for."

"Yeah dude," said Beast Boy. "Come Hell or high water, we're going to save the rest of Titans East. That's a fact."

"You said it," said Terra.

"Ain't that the truth," said Raven.

"Yeah man," said Cyborg. "No need to get your gills all tensed up. We'll get your friends out of there, and give that Geo-Force fellow a class A butt kicking too while we're at it."

"That's the spirit Cy," said Robin. The Boy Wonder then looked back ahead right as the two ships reached the top of a small hill, and his eyes widened at the sight that lay opposite. "And on that note, we may have arrived just in time."

The other Titans followed their leader's gaze, and their eyes widened in stunned horror at the sight that lay before them. Even Terra found herself white faced at what she saw. They were now practically seconds away from entering Steel City, but the city itself was showing clear signs of being in trouble. To be more precise, it was clear from the smoke pillars, fires, and other signs of destruction they saw laying before them, that the city was either under attack or had just fallen victim to one not too long ago.

Aqualad's face then started to turn a boiling red in rage at the sight of the city he and his team had been set to protect so clearly in distress. "That slimy son of a shrimp!" he shouted, slamming his right fist down on the desk of his compartment for good measure.

"Dirty coward," Terra hissed in agreement.

"He certainly is dirty considering how much dust probably gets on him during battle," Beast Boy stated nonchalantly with a slight chuckle.

"THIS ISN'T A JOKE BEAST BOY!" Aqualad snapped.

"Easy now," said Robin.

"No, no, he's right," Beast Boy said in a clearly apologetic tone. "What I just said, that was low, I'm sorry."

Aqualad panted heavily in an almost growling fashion. He then took a deep breath, exhaled, and nodded his head up and down with his eyes closed. "Apology accepted," said the Atlantean.

"Thank Azar," said Raven.

"Indeed," Robin agreed. "And have no fear Aqualad; holding heroes captive is one thing, but attacking innocents strictly at a time in which they know for a fact that there's absolutely no one to stop it is a completely different level of low. Trust me Aqualad, this cowardly attack will not go unanswered."

He tapped into the headsets of all six of the other teens. "Land the ships," he stated. "It's time we find Geo-Force and teach him to show some proper respect."

"Well we've already gotten one part of that taken care of," Aqualad hissed venomously as he stared towards the very center of the city. He then pointed in that direction, Terra and the Titans turning their heads to face the same direction. "There he is right now." And sure enough, there was Geo-Force himself, his red-brown hair billowing in the wind, fully decked out in his extravagantly colored outfit, and with his gloved hands on his hips while standing on top of a large boulder hovering a good few feet above the ground in the city center, quite unaware of the seven now very angry teenagers that were watching him.

. . . . .

Geo-Force smirked, an arrogant wolf-like grin on his face as he surveyed the mass damage all around him. "That I caused myself," he thought to himself with glee.

He then looked down at the massive number of people cowering in terror beneath him, and his grin widened. "Behold my power!" he shouted triumphantly with his hands raised in the air. "See how generous I am to have let you live in spite of all the ways I could have killed the whole lot of you in the midst of all the damage I have caused to your city!"

He slowly rotated himself around in various directions, making sure he had the entire undivided, albeit fearful, attention of all the people he now saw in the area he was hovering over. "You've seen the things I can do!" he yelled. "You've now viewed first-hand how powerful I truly am! You've witnessed with your own eyes the fear and destruction I can cause! You can see clear as day how very merciful I am for allowing you the chance for me to spare you from the terrible fate that I have sentenced your city and any luckless fools among you that weren't able to get away in time over the midst of my attack!"

He then proudly stood up to full height once more. "Observe now how even the Earth itself agrees with me!" He extended his hand down towards a broken fountain in the very center of the area he was hovering over, and then rapidly lifted it upwards in an arc. A giant geyser of mud burst up from the wreckage and zoomed ridiculously high into the air before then dissipating into nothing at a swing of Geo-Force's hand. Geo-Force then extended his hand towards an area of ground where some civilians were gathered, and repeated his earlier hand raising gesture. In a flash, a giant stalagmite burst upward from the ground directly in front of the group of civilians, sending them running away screaming in terror at how narrowly they'd just avoided getting skewered.

Geo-Force started laughing sadistically at the sight of the fear he was causing, and then waved his hand. As if in direct response to the geomancer's hand waving, two large slabs of earthen material rose up and slammed together, crushing a large gasoline truck between them as if they were the jaws of a crocodilian. By the time the earthen slabs lowered, the truck was so badly crushed that all the oil it had been carrying was leaking profusely out onto the ground and street. A maniacal look of glee on his face at the sight, Geo-Force summoned a small boulder that he sent flying through a store window, causing a large group of fireworks for sale to go flying from the wreckage and bounce across the ground in a way that caused their ignition to go on, before then exploding upon contact with the oil soaked ground, setting all the gasoline on fire. Within seconds after that, a massive wall of flames erupted into existence; and that same wall of flames was only further strengthened and expanded when the fire spread to the smashed up gasoline truck and caused it to explode in dramatic fashion when the remaining oil inside it ignited.

Geo-Force laughed again with his arms lifted up in triumph as he watched how terrified all the civilians gathered below him were acting. He then caused a series of rocky pillars to rise in front of the stone he was standing on in positions that caused them to form a structure not that different from a set of stairs. He walked down them, and upon reaching the bottom, he caused the rocky pillars to lower back into the ground before then causing the still levitating stone he'd been standing on before to rapidly rise skyward and then slam down on the ground just as rapidly. The impact of the stone's landing was so strong that it produced an incongruently large shockwave that sent every person in the area apart from Geo-Force flying backwards.

Geo-Force chuckled, and started walking forwards, his footsteps causing small vibrations in the ground. "See how weak and powerless you are against beings such as me!" he shouted. He chuckled. "For so many years, your kind have complained about oppression and rebelled against your superiors in the name of independence and freedom! Yet even now, when times of great danger and peril come that you cannot hope to overcome on your own come around, you always look to your leaders or to heroes such as the Justice League to save you and guide you through!"

He then grinned as he realized another thing that he could say to further break the spirits of the townspeople he was now terrorizing. "And your own heroes aren't even here now to do anything! Why you may ask? Look at their headquarters right this very moment and you shall see clear as day!"

The citizens all looked in the direction that the geomancer was pointing, and gasped in horror as they saw what the current state that Titans Tower East in. It was standing alone on a very damaged and dusty looking island, with almost the entirety of the building itself seemingly consumed in a virtual mountain of dust, rocks, and similar earthen material, with only the roof and segments of the 'arms' of the T shape exposed to the light.

Geo-Force laughed haughtily at the sight and sound of the peoples' horror. He lifted his arms once more. "Yes indeed!" he shouted. "Even now, your own local heroes are powerless to stop me!" He then pointed his finger at every group of civilians that he could. "If you were truly as independent as you claim to be or wish you could be you wouldn't need to rely on others to lead you through times of crisis! You'd be able to take care of yourselves! You wouldn't need to rely on high and mighty and corrupt leaders or oh so powerful heroes who even now can't do anything to help you any more than you yourselves can do anything to stop me!"

The geomancer spread his arms out to the sides. "Face it!" he yelled. "You simply aren't capable of being independent! Certainly not in the way you all want to be! You were made to be ruled! Always have been, and always will be! Sooner or later, my master will arrive and convert your heroes as he has converted me, and over time will convert an entire army! And once he has his army ready, he will spearhead the charge that will make way for _his_ master to rise from imprisonment and take the throne himself! So you might as well prepare yourselves for the inevitable! Come now! Bow before me! Cower at my feet! Show that you understand how inevitable it is for you to all live under the shadow of a ruler!"

"We will never bow to you!"

Geo-Force looked in the direction he'd heard this voice, and so did the other civilians. They all saw an elderly civilian standing tall and proud with a look of defiance on his face. The elderly man pointed his finger at Geo-Force and said curtly, "You talk a good game and put on a good show, but in the end, we never give up our freedom in the face of people like you! Never have, never will!"

Geo-Force was briefly surprised, but he covered up quickly, and let a small smile come up on his face. "People like me you say?" he stated in a calm and seemingly peaceable tone. "You've never experienced people like me."

The old man sniggered, directed a smug look of his own at the geomancer, and responded, "Oh young man, there are always people like you."

He looked around at his fellow civilians. "You heard me. There's always been people like him in our history. They may arise at different times, speak in different voices, take different shapes, possess different abilities, and work for different variations of a common goal; but in the end, look past all those differences, and we're always looking at the exact same person." He then looked back at Geo-Force, his finger pointing at the geomancer once more. "And every time some monster like you has arisen among people, someone has always struck that luckless villain down from his perch, and that is exactly what's going to happen to you, just as it did to all the others who tried to do exactly what you are doing now."

Geo-Force smiled, though on the inside he was feeling quite angry and irritated at this blaring wrench that had now been thrown in his efforts to cow the civilian citizens of Steel City into submission. He then chuckled, pointed his finger at the elderly upstart, and looked around at the other civilians. "He talks a good game," he said. "Let us now put to the test just what good his bravery today will do for him." He snapped his fingers, and a large stalagmite rose up from the ground directly next to him, snapped from its roots, and started levitating in a horizontal fashion while pointing straight at the elderly man. "Observe your elder," Geo-Force stated calmly, "and let him be an example to you all." The civilians all turned to watch the elderly man who'd spoken up, and saw him just standing where he was with a calm look on his face, clearly willing to accept death with dignity.

Geo-Force sent the sharp rocky projectile flying towards the elderly man, only for it to be abruptly blocked off by a shadowy wall of energy that popped up out of nowhere between the elderly civilian and the earthen projectile right as the projectile was inches away from jabbing into the man's chest. The stalagmite was sent flying backward and crashed down on the ground not too far behind Geo-Force, who now very clearly looked stunned at this second unexpected turn of events.

"Well that's sure one powerful example."

Geo-Force turned his head to look behind him, and saw none other than the Teen Titans standing behind him. And not the ones that he'd taken prisoner either, but the ones from all the way out in Jump City, California, the area where the Atlantean that had escaped him two days ago had been heading to summon reinforcements. Now, as he could see perfectly well, it was clear that the reinforcements that he'd been warned about yesterday by the strange young woman in a cat-like mask before giving him orders to truly make his presence known to the people of Steel City had arrived.

Then the masked boy with black hair, fair skin, and dressed in a bright colored costume complete with a yellow and black cape pointed at the geomancer, and spoke in the same voice he'd heard not too long after his failed attempt at killing the civilian, "You may have the local heroes of this city captive, but you're the one who's going to be locked up once were done with you."

"You will let our friends go," said the orange skinned girl with red hair and green eye floating in the air to the left of the masked boy.

"Yeah," said the partially robotic boy standing nearby. "The locals don't like it when you try to shake up their way of life too bad."

Geo-Force's eyes narrowed, and he turned his entire body around to face the new arrivals. "Well, well, well," he said in a calm, poker faced tone of voice. "The original Teen Titans, at last we meet." He then seemed to look them over carefully. "I must admit; I was expecting you to be older."

"Sorry to disappoint," said another one of the Titans, this one a girl dressed in a hooded dark blue cloak. Geo-Force actually found himself briefly gazing intently at this girl, for the cloak she was wearing reminded him very much of the much darker black cloak that his own master wore.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Well nevertheless," said Geo-Force, clasping his hands together and stretching them forward. "It is an honor for us to finally meet, face to face."

The geomancer looked around as if searching for something. "Where is the Atlantean?" he asked in a seemingly nonchalant tone. "I was looking forward to seeing him again."

"Well too bad buddy," said the final member of the Titans group to catch his attention, a boy with skin that strangely appeared to be olive green all over, emerald green eyes, chartreuse yellow-green hair, pointed ears, and sharp fangs. "Cuz he ain't here."

Geo-Force raised his eyebrow, clearly suspicious. Regardless of what the green boy had said, and how little the faces of the five teenagers gathered in front of him gave away, he had a feeling that the Atlantean was in the area somewhere. "Such is the case," he then said more for the sake of the Titans hearing him before taking a deep breath, closing his eyes, and taking on a seemingly relaxed position.

In reality, however, he was using a special part of his powers to detect vibrations. This power came in very handy in the right situations, including for when one was trying to detect people by their footsteps. As he kept his eyes closed, he managed to become completely in tune with the earth, and his mind proceeded to travel around the area as he tracked for footsteps. When he found a pair of sets of footsteps, he followed the sound all the way to a small street further away from where he was located, and mentally smiled in victory at the sight of none other than the Atlantean running along in the direction of the dock positioned a few miles in front of where Titans Tower East Island was located, with a blonde girl around the same age as him running along behind him. Admittedly, he had no idea who the girl was, but neither did he care. The important thing to him was that he had found the Atlantean.

The geomancer exited out from his footstep sensing state, summoned a ball of yellow energy in his right hand, and then sent it into the ground. The orb sank straight through the ground as if it were a ghost phasing through. The Titans tensed themselves up for battle, clearly thinking that the orb was designed to cause something to happen to them. Geo-Force smirked towards them, his face clearly showing an expression that could be interpreted as both an approval of his opponents being ready to fight and as smugly grinning at the Titans blissful unawareness of just what he was actually up to.

Then, when Geo-Force could sense that the orb he'd sent into the ground was too far away for the Titans to do anything to stop it from reaching the Atlantean and his unexpected female companion, Geo-Force yelled, "Enough talk! Let's fight!" He swung his right hand upward, and a long line of stalagmites began to rise from the ground and expand straight in the direction of the Titans.

. . . . .

"Titans move!"

At the sound of this yell from Robin, the Titans all jumped in varying directions to evade the stalagmites. Robin turned his impact with the ground into a series of somersaults, that allowed him to get progressively closer to Geo-Force's position. Once he'd reached what he deemed a sufficient distance, the Boy Wonder jumped into the air and hurled a small cluster of disks at the geomancer, uttering a harsh inarticulate yell for good measure.

The geomancer crossed his arms across his face to shield himself from the blow, and the disks crashed into his arms before exploding and causing his arms to become coated in massive tendrils of electricity. Geo-Force rolled his eyes upon discovering that the explosive disks had been designed to burst into electricity instead of in flames, and lowered his arms with a snappy comeback at the ready, only for his eyes to widen when he saw Robin land on the ground and then lunge straight towards him with his right foot at the ready to slam him right in the face.

Geo-Force ducked, and the Boy Wonder sailed clean over the geomancer. Robin landed behind Geo-Force and turned to strike at him again, but this time with his bo staff at the ready. But the geomancer was ready, and he turned around, grabbed onto the staff, and lifted upward, sending Robin flying back over Geo-Force and landing on the other side once more. Robin turned the impact into a roll, and he got himself back on his feet. But Robin looked upwards to face Geo-Force too late, just as the villain summoned a levitating rock from the ground next to him and sent it hurtling straight at the Boy Wonder.

The summoned stone struck Robin in the chest and sent him hurtling backwards before crashing through a window into a nearby barber shop. Robin groaned, and managed to get back on his feet, only to find Geo-Force standing right in front of the shattered window with a gleeful smirk on his face as he lifted up his now glowing yellow hands.

Fortunately for the Boy Wonder, before Geo-Force could do anything, the geomancer was sent stumbling forward when a burst of blue laser light crashed into him from behind. Geo-Force regained his footing, turned around, and snarled silently at the sight of Cyborg standing behind him with his right sonic cannon still pointed at him.

Geo-Force snorted in anger and stomped his left foot on the ground, causing a large boulder to pop upwards out of the ground and hover in midair in front of the geomancer. Upon summoning this boulder, the geomancer proceeded to give the boulder a powerful stomp kick that sent it rocketing straight at Cyborg.

Unlike the last time a villain had pulled this kind of trick on him, Cyborg was ready, and he blasted the boulder to dust with his sonic cannon before it even traveled half the distance between him and Geo-Force. Geo-Force repeated the attack, and again Cyborg blasted the boulder to dust. Geo-Force repeated his attack again, now clearly angry, but Cyborg calmly blasted this 3rd boulder as well.

Geo-Force's eyes narrowed, and then he proceeded to reposition himself before then lifting his right hand upward in the exact same fashion as he had when he'd begun the battle. Cyborg tensed up in preparation for dodging another eruption line of stalagmites. However, what Cyborg didn't realize was that, this time, instead of a line of stalagmites, Geo-Force's action had caused an even bigger boulder than before to rise out of the ground directly behind Cyborg and levitate in the air, which the geomancer then caused to levitate into position directly above Cyborg before he then caused it to slam down on top of the bionic teenager.

Geo-Force lifted the boulder back up, revealing Cyborg lying on the ground on his back, seemingly out cold. The geomancer marched his way over to the apparently unconscious Cyborg, ready to finish him off. But then, right as Geo-Force was standing literally at Cyborg's feet, his human eye opened and his red eye regained its glow. Geo-Force had just enough time for his eyes to widen in surprise before Cyborg reactivated his sonic cannon, pointed it at the geomancer, and then blasted him in the chest, sending the terrakinetic flying backward.

Geo-Force landed on his back a good few feet away from Cyborg, and he grunted and groaned as he got back onto his feet. Then he heard a raspy female voice shout, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Geo-Force looked in the direction he'd heard the voice coming from just in time to see Raven hovering nearby with her hands and eyes glowing with black energy as she proceeded to cause a lamp post she'd uprooted and encased with the same black energy to swing at the geomancer in a style similar to swinging a golf club.

The telekinetically lifted golf club slammed into Geo-Force, and the geomancer was catapulted into the air across several yards before landing hard and skidding painfully to a stop. Geo-Force scrambled back to his feet, and turned to face Raven with a savage glare of rage on his face before then causing a massive volley of boulders to rise up into the air that he then sent rocketing straight towards Raven.

The sorceress summoned a spherical force field of shadow energy around herself just in time to avoid getting bludgeoned by the onslaught of boulders. But the impact from the rocks caused her to be sent flying backwards within her force field, which then bounced jarringly onto the street. The unexpected bounce jolted Raven out of her concentration, and her force field vanished before she then bounced backwards across the ground a couple times. When she skidded to a stop and managed to get back on her feet, she looked up from the ground just in time to see Geo-Force barreling towards her with a scream of rage.

Raven hurriedly swung her left hand to the left, causing a small crescent shaped shield of shadow energy to appear just in time to block Geo-Force's left fist when he swung it at her. She repeated the maneuver with her opposite hand in the opposite direction to shield herself again when Geo-Force attempted to swing his right fist at her. Then the geomancer swung his left leg at her, sweeping her legs out from under her and sending her slamming down on her back. She got into a seated position and looked up just in time to see Geo-Force standing almost right above her with a large stalagmite spear at the ready to be sent plunging into her.

Raven was just about to try to shield herself, and Geo-Force was seconds away from sending his newly summoned spear flying at the sorceress, when a large green triceratops suddenly slammed into the geomancer from his right and pushed him away. The stalagmite hovering in the air lost the yellow glow around it as a result of Geo-Force having lost his concentration, and it landed harmlessly on the ground by Raven's feet.

Beast Boy the triceratops continued to push Geo-Force away until coming to a stop by slamming him up against a wall. Having slammed Geo-Force against the wall, he transformed into a gorilla and started swinging his fists at the dazed geomancer. Geo-Force was at first to dazed to do anything as the large green gorilla continuously rammed his fists into his chest, ribs, and abdomen; but then he managed to regain his bearings as a direct result of the pain, and he grabbed the ape by the wrists and lifted it up into the air.

Unfortunately for the geomancer, in the midst of lifting up the green ape, he was left unprepared to adjust to something heavier appearing in his grip in a hurry, and as a result, he fell flat on his back when Beast Boy transformed himself into a t-rex in midair, and his right foot crashed down on Geo-Force, leaving only the geomancer's head and arms exposed. As Geo-Force shook his head to regain his bearings, Beast Boy the t-rex leaned his head down towards the geomancer, licked his lips, and then roared loudly.

The geomancer summoned a small orb of sand that he then caused to transform into a stream of sand the flowed straight into the open mouth of the roaring dinosaur. Beast Boy coughed and sputtered as it felt the sand enter its mouth, and he stepped backwards off of Geo-Force in the process. With Beast Boy no longer standing directly on top of him, Geo-Force scrambled back onto his feet and slammed his left fist on the ground, causing a large pillar of stones to abruptly erupt from underneath Beast Boy with a sufficient enough impact to cause the dinosaur to be catapulted upwards into the air.

The green t-rex reverted back to human form in midair, and Beast Boy briefly fluttered his arms around in the air before he then noticed, with his eyes widening, a large mass of boulders rising up into the air that then hovered into position directly above him before suddenly starting to plummet straight towards him.

Thinking quickly, Beast Boy transformed into a peregrine falcon and dove downwards in a diagonal slant. In a flash, with the peregrine falcon's natural max diving speed, he was able to get out of the path of the falling boulders before they could crush him. Inches away from the ground, he reverted back to human form and turned his impact into a series of somersaults. When he skidded to a stop, he transformed into a python just in time to slither away in a style that allowed him to avoid getting skewered multiple times by a series of stalagmites that Geo-Force caused to burst up from the ground. In doing so, Beast Boy got progressively closer to the geomancer in spite of Geo-Force's continued efforts at spearing him with summoned stalagmites. Then, when the shapeshifter was at what he deemed to be a sufficient position, he unleashed a serpentine lunging bite attack towards the geomancer, transforming into a lion mid lunge.

The green lion plowed into Geo-Force and knocked him to the ground. As Beast Boy held the geomancer pinned to the ground with his front paws, he growled, lifted his head towards the sky, and roared in triumph. But Geo-Force wasn't about to go down that easily, and he pressed his feet against the lion's stomach before then lifting his legs upward, sending the lion flying forwards and off of him while allowing him to regain his footing at the same time.

The lion landed on its front paws that allowed it to land fully on its feet and skid to a stop in a way that allowed it to turn itself around to face Geo-Force once more, and it roared in challenge at the geomancer. Geo-Force snarled venomously, his eyes blazing with hate, and he lifted his left fist as if about to slam it down on the earth, with the fist in question even glowing yellow like has hands had every other time he'd prepared to summon a terrakinetic attack. But then Geo-Force was interrupted when he felt a burst of energy strike him on the back of his head.

Geo-Force was sent stumbling forwards, and he turned his head to look behind him. Hovering in the air behind the geomancer was none other than Starfire, her fists encased in star bolts, and her eyes glowing green as well. Geo-Force snorted, spat on the ground in front of him, and sent a large boulder flying into the air towards the Tamaranean. Starfire dodged, and blasted him in the face with her eye beams. Geo-Force was sent staggering off balance with his eyes closed from the impact against his face by the laser beams. While staggering off balance and effectively blinded, Geo-Force managed to hear Starfire land calmly on her feet in front of him, but was unable to do anything to stop her from doing what she did next. Upon landing, Starfire proceeded to strike Geo-Force right in the chest with a lightning fast punch. Her fist struck the geomancer with such a tremendous impact and such a fast speed that the geomancer was sent flying high into the air and backwards towards the city center. By the time he landed, he had been so high up in the sky that he landed very painfully on his belly.

Right as he got on his hands and knees, he heard a loud yell, and he looked up in time to see Robin barreling towards him. He swung himself around so that his leg swiped the Boy Wonder's own legs out from under him and sent him crashing on his back. With the caped crusader down, the geomancer hopped up onto his feet, only to then be forced to jump back in time to avoid getting struck by a star bolt, and then again to avoid a sonic laser blast. Then he reached behind him just in time to grab onto the cowl of Raven's cloak as the sorceress flew towards him, pulling it down over her face and then hurling her over his shoulder and straight into Beast Boy, who'd been swooping down towards him as a pteranodon. The chromatically challenged duo collided comically in midair and fell to the ground in a tangled heap. The geomancer took on a fighting stance, ready to take on more attacks.

"Master. . ."

Geo-Force cursed upon hearing this voice in his head. "Son of a . . .," he thought to himself.

. . . . .

Quite a while earlier, right as the Titans and Geo-Force were in the midst of their conversation from before battling, Aqualad and Terra were running through the more or less abandoned damaged streets of Steel City as they worked to get around the area where Geo-Force was and reach the harbor so that they could get a good vantage point of the state that the Titans East Tower was in and help to formulate a plan for how to get to that island to rescue the rest of Titans East.

It had been Robin's idea for them to split off from the rest of the group to help in this fashion. The way the Boy Wonder had put it, Geo-Force would have been expecting for Aqualad to show up to face him, but not for the Titans from all the way down in Jump City, California. And as for Terra, Robin had stated that it would be wise to try to keep Terra out of the fight as much as they could while they worked to try to get a good idea as to just what they were dealing with. The former geomancer, much to Aqualad's surprise, had actually agreed with Robin and chosen to accompany Aqualad.

"I still can't believe you actually agreed to go through with Robin's orders," Aqualad stated out loud.

"You've got a problem with that?" Terra asked.

"Oh don't get me wrong I'm grateful," Aqualad responded. "It's just, after that little talk you had with him yesterday about being able to take care of yourself in a fight, and about how potentially useful you could be in a fight against Geo-Force, I thought for sure that you would insist on joining up with him and the other Titans."

"While indeed true," Terra began, "I also know how to pick my battles, and I'm not going to try to defy Robin's orders; not now, and hopefully not ever. I've already betrayed their trust enough, and I'd rather I not give them any more reason to distrust me then I already have."

Aqualad was silent for a moment as he and Terra continued to run. "Fair point," he admitted.

"Glad to see we're on the same page," said Terra, a small smile on her face.

Aqualad chuckled. "Well put in the perspective you've just put it," he then stated. "It would make a whole lot more sense for you to . . ."

"Shush," Terra abruptly stated.

"Excuse me?" Aqualad snapped, coming to a stop and turning to face Terra in the process with a small glare on his face.

"Shush," Terra hissed, her left hand lifted so that her palm was open and facing Aqualad, and also a very worried look on her face as she indicated with her head towards the ground and made another gesture with her right hand as if asking the Atlantean to listen.

Aqualad was briefly confused, until he then heard what sounded like some sort of rumbling noise coming from under the ground. At the sound of this, his eyes widened, and so did Terra's when the noise suddenly got louder.

"Move!" Aqualad shouted as he grabbed onto Terra's hand and dragged her away just in time for her to be safely out of reach when the ground suddenly erupted from directly underneath where she'd been standing seconds earlier. And seconds after the ground erupted from this area, a horrendous abomination that looked like a polar bear sized anthropomorphic mole made out of rocks rocketed up from the hole that was formed and landed a couple feet behind the fleeing duo. After landing, the monster lifted its head, the two glowing yellow cracks on its head designed to serve as eyes seemingly narrowing at the sight of the two teens running away from it. It lifted its hands in the air, its absurdly long and sharp granite claws glinting in the sun light, reared its head upwards, and uttered a harsh gravelly sounding roar towards the sky before it then dove at the ground, burrowed its way back underneath, and started digging its way towards Aqualad and Terra from beneath.

The two teens continued to run as fast as they could, panting as they worked desperately to stay ahead of the stony monster that had apparently been sent after them. As they ran, they rapidly turned down whatever street they could make a snap decision to run down in a desperate effort to get the nightmarish rumbling noise as far behind them as possible. By sheer luck, none of the roads they turned on were dead ends. But then, at one point, they turned down yet another street, only to then be forced to skid to a halt when the mole-like monster erupted from the ground about a yard in front of them.

Upon coming to a stop, the two teens found themselves literally inches away from the literally stony-faced abomination. As Aqualad and Terra stood where they were, gaping open mouthed in fear at the creature, the beast reared itself upward, its eyes narrowing, and then abruptly leaned forward so that it's face was centimeters away from Terra's own face before then roaring at her.

Terra screamed as the monster let out its blaring roar. Aqualad hurriedly grabbed Terra by the hand once more and started running off in the opposite direction, dragging the still screaming Terra along briefly before she finally managed to get herself moving of her own volition. The monster growled, and crouched in preparation for jumping. Terra happened to look back at it for a split second, only for her eyes to narrow in confusion when she noticed a small detail that she hadn't noticed about it the previous time. Before she could wonder about it further, the monster jumped up and dove back underground, and she was forced to turn her head away and continue running alongside Aqualad.

As the two teens continued to run, Terra managed to speak out, "Hey Aqualad, did you notice any bat-ear shaped spikes on its head the first time we saw it?"

"Wasn't really paying that much attention to its head," Aqualad responded. "I was a little preoccupied with the sight of its claws."

"Well ok but still," Terra insisted. "Did you see anything on its head the first time we saw it?"

"Terra, I wish I could give you a straight answer to that . . ."

The Atlantean was interrupted when the two teens were forced to skid to a halt when the monster jumped out of the ground in front of them again, landing hard on its feet just like it had the first two times. This time, when the monster looked towards them, Terra saw neither of the two bat-ear shaped spikes that she could have sworn were on its head previously. But then the monster roared, and it reared its arms backwards into a position that allowed Terra to catch sight of a detail that very disturbingly contradicted with the way the claws had looked the previous two times it had appeared. And in that instant, her eyes widened as she began to consider a very unsettling possibility.

"Aqualad," she stated fearfully. "Its claws . . ."

"Yeah I know, they're sharp," Aqualad interrupted. "Let's go," he then shouted as he grabbed the former geomancer by the hand once more and dragging her into fleeing alongside him once more. The monster growled as it watched its prey escape, and then dove under the ground and started burrowing after the two fleeing teenagers.

As the Atlantean and half Markovian ran through the streets yet again, Terra managed to say, "Aqualad, what I was about to say about that thing's claws . . ."

"Can this wait till later?" Aqualad asked fearfully, clearly not wanting to have to worry about a seemingly minor detail in the midst of having to worry about him and Terra escaping with their lives.

"I mean it Aqualad," said Terra. "That thing's claws, they didn't look the same as they did before."

"What do you mean they looked different?!" Aqualad yelled.

"Their shape," Terra yelled back. "The first two times we saw it; its claws were straight like swords. But just a few minutes ago, they were curved like scythes."

"Probably just got bent out of shape while it was digging," Aqualad stated.

"You don't get it," Terra snapped. "That thing is made out of _rock_. Rock doesn't change shape that easily. It's stuck in position, and only breaks if you try to make it be otherwise."

"Your point being?" Aqualad yelled in fear.

"My point is . . . eek!"

"What's going . . . agh!"

The two teens skidded to a stop just in time to avoid getting crushed under the feet of the mole-like monster when it landed right in front of them after erupting from the ground in front of them yet again. As the two teens remained positioned exactly the way they were when they'd come to a stop, they panted and gasped in fear as the creature rose up from its crouching position and then stared at them with its single glowing yellow eye.

Aqualad's own jet black eyes widened at the sight of the monster staring at them, and not because of the fact that it was staring at them, or even because of the vicious look in its eye. "Terra," he stated in a both fearful and curious tone. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't it have two eyes before?"

Terra grinned nervously, and looked at Aqualad with a small partially fearful grimace on her face. "Um yeah, I have a bad feeling that there's a reason behind that . . ."

The ground started rumbling again, but this time from behind them. Their eyes widened, and they turned their heads to face the area behind them just in time to see a 2nd mole-like monster lunge out of the ground. And unlike the one directly in front of them, it had two eyes, and its claws were shaped like sickles. Aqualad's black eyes widened in horror as he finally noticed the difference in claw shape, and realized belatedly what Terra had been trying to warn him about.

But then the two teens heard rumbling yet again, and this time to their left. They looked in that direction again just in time to see another mole-like monster surface and crash land nearby. This one, just like Terra had noted the first time she and Aqualad had seen it, had two bat-ear shaped rocky spikes on its head. And this time, Aqualad saw those two spikes quite clearly. He and Terra stepped back involuntarily as the beast glared at them. "This is so not good," Aqualad thought to himself.

Then the two teens heard even more rumbling coming from behind them, and they turned around just in time to see none other than the original mole-like monster they'd seen before the chase had begun. And this one proved just as easy to distinguish as the other 3 as a result of how its left leg was seemingly encased in a spider web of cracks.

At the sight of this, the two teens looked each other in the eyes nervously, clearly realizing that they were surrounded, and then they started looking around at the four mole-like monsters. "Oh holy schist," Terra stated aloud.

"Holy schist is right," Aqualad grumbled bitterly. "No wonder it kept looking different; there was more than one, and you were trying to warn me about it, darn!"

The one eyed monster growled savagely, and then paused, its single eye narrowing. Then it straightened up to full height, its brethren doing the same. For a good long while, the four monsters stood absolutely still, seemingly in a trance, much to the confusion of the two teens they were surrounding.

Unknown to the two teens in question, the monsters had just entered themselves into a telepathic state. "Master," said the one eyed monster.

A small voice inside their heads seemed to curse, and then snapped in an irritated voice, "What!?"

"The requested quarry," said the one eyed monster. "We have found it."

"Well what are you waiting for?" the other voice shouted. "Take him down!"

"There is a girl with him," said the one eyed monster. "You didn't tell us about him having a companion." The other three mole-like monsters nodded their heads in agreement.

The monsters heard their master curse seemingly under his breath. "Well never mind that, you have your orders. Take down the Atlantean, but don't kill him if you can avoid it. If at all possible, I'd like to have him captured alive. But if that proves impossible, then kill him."

"What about the girl?" the one-eyed monster asked mulishly.

Its master groaned. "Kill her," the voice spat out. "I have no need for her."

The four mole-like monsters directed their gaze towards the two teens. "If you say so," the one eyed monster eventually stated. The monsters then got out of their relaxed telepathic communication position, and tensed themselves into battle ready posture.

At the same time that the four monsters had been in their telepathic trance, Aqualad and Terra had both at first been quite confused. "Why aren't they attacking us?" Aqualad asked.

Terra's eyes narrowed in confusion, and then widened as she remembered something from her past that directly connected with the current situation. "Aqualad," she stated. "I think I might have an idea why."

"And?" Aqualad asked.

"When I was working for Slade, I was able to telepathically communicate with similar monsters that I summoned. They always paused and took on a position very much like the one these four are in whenever I talked to them. I think Geo-Force is talking to them."

Aqualad examined the four stony monsters. With what Terra had just said, he now actually found the suggestion did actually make sense. And for a few more minutes, they watched the monsters in their trance.

"Wait a minute," Aqualad then stated. "Why are we just standing here? Shouldn't we be attacking them or trying to escape!?"

Terra looked at Aqualad in confusion, but then her eyes widened as she realized exactly what Aqualad had said. "You're right, of course! We need to get out of here . . ."

But then the monsters took on a clearly battle ready position. "Crap, we're too late," said Terra. As one, all four of the monsters leaned forwards in their respective directions and unleashed their savage gravelly roars at Aqualad and Terra. The loud noise and close proximity of the beasts' faces to their own left the two teens so stunned that they didn't get the chance to dodge when the one eyed monster reared its right arm back as if about to swing it at them.

The monster's paw slammed painfully into the chests of Aqualad and Terra, sending the Atlantean and half Markovian flying backward. They managed to regain their bearings just in time to notice that they flying straight towards the monster with the scythe shaped claws, which had just happened to draw it's left arm back as if about to thrust its claws towards them, or to be more specific, straight towards Terra.

Terra and Aqualad both realized this, and the half Markovian screamed and wrapped her arms around Aqualad while the Atlantean summoned a spout of water that erupted right in front of the monster and blasted them upwards just in time for Terra to avoid getting stabbed through the chest by the creature's stony claws. The claws did, however, spear through the water spout, and cause it to falter. As a result, Aqualad and Terra soon lost momentum and began to fall back down.

Fortunately, the Atlantean and half Markovian managed to land behind the monster with the scythe shaped claws, and they found themselves momentarily safe from attack. But then the monster with distinctive claws turned its head to look behind it, and roared in rage with its yellow eyes glowing blindingly bright at the sight of its escaped targets. Panting in a mixture of exhaustion, pain, and fear, the two teens got to their feet and started running. The monsters all roared as one, and dove back under the ground to dig their way after the two fleeing teens in pursuit.

Aqualad and Terra only made it about a yard down the road before the four rocky mole monsters erupted out of the ground in front of them, blocking their way. As the two teens found themselves skidding to a halt, they didn't even get the chance to try to run away before the sickle clawed monster swung its left hand claws at them. The teenage duo hurriedly ducked in time to avoid getting decapitated, only to end up landing on their backs due to having already been skidding to a halt in the midst of ducking.

Much to their surprise, the monsters didn't do anything while they were downed, and they got up into a seated position in time to see three of the monsters seemingly crowding around the monster with the scythe shaped claws and yelling at it.

"What in Poseidon's name?" Aqualad asked in confusion.

Then Terra noticed the monster with the cracked leg point in Aqualad's direction before then growling savagely at the sickle clawed monster, and a lightbulb went off in her head. "Looks like Robin was right," said Terra. "Geo-Force does still want you alive; and clearly, those other three monsters aren't all that happy with their fellow monster for almost decapitating you in its effort to take me out."

Then the former geomancer noticed a small pebble lying on the ground nearby where she was seated, and she hurriedly picked it up and got back onto her feet before tossing the pebble at the monster with the scythe-shaped claws. The pebble struck the monster right on the top of its head, and all four of the monsters paused in their apparent argument before they all turned their heads to face Terra and Aqualad, snarling furiously at the interruption.

Terra stuck her tongue out at the four monsters, and beckoned at the monsters as if daring them to chase her. "Yeah that's right!" she yelled. "Come and get me pebble brains!"

The sickle clawed monster reared forward, roaring in rage. Terra turned around right as the monster was in the middle of roaring at her, and bolted down the street in the direction opposite the four monsters. The sickle clawed monster growled angrily, and dove back under ground before starting to burrow its way after the blond teenage girl it was even now so very eager to kill.

The other three monsters tensed up as if about to dive underground to follow their compatriot before they then heard another voice yell, "Hey sand heads!"

The three remaining monsters turned to face the direction of the voice, and found their eyes narrowing at the sight of the target that their master wanted them to make every effort to capture alive. The Atlantean in question cupped his hands together, causing a small vortex of water to form within. "Try and take me!" he yelled.

All three of the monsters that hadn't dived under the ground to pursue Terra proceeded to roar in unison at Aqualad before the monster with the stony bat ears on its head snapped its craggy jaws at him. Aqualad jumped back to avoid getting bitten, and then made a point to blast it right in the mouth with the water in his hands when it opened its mouth again to roar at him.

The bat-eared monster howled as it felt the water enter its mouth and go down its throat, and it started staggering around and coughing. The other two monsters roared in rage and bulled their way past their incapacitated compatriot as they charged towards the Atlantean. Aqualad stood firm as the two monsters charged towards him, and then proceeded to jump backwards with somersaults again and again as the monsters proceeded to swing their clawed hands at him in an effort to knock him out by sending him flying into nearby walls. The monsters roared in rage as they continued time and time again to fail in this endeavor.

At one point, right as the two monsters were preparing to take yet another swing at him, Aqualad caused a large spout of water to erupt directly between the two monsters, and they were sent staggering off balance. Aqualad clapped his hands together, and then rapidly swung them apart, causing the watery spout to burst into two waves of water that moved in the exact same fashion as the Atlantean's hands. The two waves in question plowed into the two monsters and sent them reeling before crashing down hard on their sides.

The two monsters managed to get up, growl at Aqualad, and then dive under the ground. In a flash, the two monsters started burrowing in circles around Aqualad from under the ground. Aqualad tried as hard as he could to watch carefully as the monsters circled around him, slowly finding himself getting slightly dizzy.

Then the two monsters burst out from under the ground, with the one eyed monster leaping towards him from in front while the monster with the cracked leg zoomed towards him from behind. In that moment, the monsters extended their claws forward and opened their jaws to roar in triumph at apparently having succeeded in trapping their quarry.

But then Aqualad ducked, and the monsters' roars of triumph turned into howls of shock before they then painfully collided in the form of their heads banging together. Aqualad hurriedly leaped out from underneath the two airborne monsters in a style reminiscent of a frog just in time to avoid getting flattened when the two monsters crash landed on the ground where he'd been positioned. As he landed, the Atlantean turned the impact into a roll, and he managed to come to a stop completely unharmed and in a position that allowed him to take a look at the two prone monsters.

Then he turned his head to look to his right; only to find the bat eared monster standing right next to him before it then roared in his face. But Aqualad was able to react very quickly in spite of his shock, and he summoned a burst of water to go flying right into the monster's open mouth. The monster hacked, coughed, and sputtered as it felt water once again enter its mouth, clearly not having learned from the previous time.

For a precious few seconds, Aqualad remained where he was and smirked at the bat eared monster's expense. But then he heard two roars in unison with each other come from nearby, and he looked towards them just in time to see that they'd gotten back on their feet and appeared to be about to lunge at him. Aqualad cursed mentally and looked back at the bat eared monster just in time to see that it had seemingly recovered much faster than it had before, and it lifted its now clenched paws up in the air, seemingly about to slam its paws down towards him as if they were clenched fists.

Aqualad hurriedly jumped back, and the bat eared monster slammed its paws down hard on the ground where he'd been positioned, leaving a web of cracks behind. Aqualad didn't even get the chance to catch his breath before he was then forced to jump away again when the monster with the cracking leg attempted to pull off the same trick that its bat eared partner had attempted. Then he was forced to cartwheel to his right when the one eyed monster attempted to take him down by charging at him like a bull.

Aqualad was just barely able to keep himself from falling on the receiving end of these three attacks sent his way in a row, and he started panting and getting tired as the three monsters continued to try to beat him down.

Meanwhile, Terra was starting to wonder if she'd perhaps gone in way over her head when she found herself continuing to try to avoid getting sliced up by the sickle clawed monster she'd angered into chasing after her. Already there was a considerable number of horridly large gashes in the road that the monster had left in its efforts to slash her to pieces, and it still didn't seem to be losing any energy. Terra then dove behind a large pile of bricks, only to peak out from behind it to see that the monster was now barreling straight towards her.

Terra's eyes widened, for she knew that the massive pile of bricks would not hinder the monster in the slightest if it were allowed to charge straight at it, and she hurriedly began to pick up bricks and toss them at the monster. The bricks bounced off of the monster's rocky skin, seeming only to annoy it and make it angry, and it roared irritably as it continued to charge forward in spite of the onslaught of bricks. Terra cursed mentally, jumped onto the top of the brick pile and then jumped off right as the monster was about to crash into the brick pile, using its back as a means of propelling herself forward by pressing her foot on it. She landed on her feet nearby what looked like a sharpened steel girder and turned around just in time to see the monster burst through the pile of bricks and land flat on its face.

Terra chuckled at the sight of the monster face planting, and then turned to look at the steel girder. Meanwhile, the monster eventually managed to lift its head, press its hands on the ground and get itself back on its feet. Then, right as it was about to turn around, it felt something long and sharp jab into its back and saw what looked like a long steel spike suddenly burst out of its chest and come to a stop.

Being made of stone, the monster felt no pain from this, but its eyes narrowed as it thought about who was likely responsible for the attack, and it slowly turned around to face none other than Terra, who was now standing behind it with a grimace on her face as she belatedly realized that she had possibly not quite thought her plan through as well as she'd thought she had.

The monster narrowed its eyes, looked down towards the steel girder sticking through its chest with an almost bored look in its eyes, and then pressed one of its claws against the tip and pushed it backwards out of the spot from which Terra had stabbed it, causing it to pop out of its body and fall to the ground with a clang.

Terra audibly gulped at the sight and sound of that, and then looked upwards toward the monster's face, a clear 'oh crap' look on her face. The monster growled, its yellow eyes narrowing, and then roared ear splittingly loudly in pure rage.

Terra flinched, turned away from the monster and started running away back towards Aqualad. The sickle clawed monster roared again, and then started bolting straight towards the fleeing half Markovian. As Terra raced down the street with the furious monster close behind, she yelled fearfully, "Aqualad! Help me!"

The Atlantean, at that moment, was still trying to avoid getting pounded into the ground or walls by the other three monsters. "A little busy here!" he shouted as he ducked to avoid yet another blow from his three assailants.

Terra gasped and panted, and looked behind her just in time to see the sickle clawed monster continue to bear down on her. In fact, it was almost inches away from being within sufficient range to swing its claws at her. Then the monster reared its right arm back as if about to swing at her, and she instantly knew that she had to get out of the way. She hurriedly jumped to the side, and the monster's claws swiped through thin air. And as an added bonus, the force of the monster's swing caused it to turn around to face the area Terra had jumped in and skid backwards before falling flat on its face a good few feet away from the former geomancer.

Terra placed her back up against a store window she was standing in front of, panting in exhaustion and relief from her current narrowly earned reprieve from getting chased by the sickle clawed monster. Then she noticed a gleam of metal from out of the corner of her left eye, and she turned her head in time to see a miraculously undamaged fire hydrant positioned nearby with an abandoned fireman's hose lying down next to it. Upon sight of this, Terra's eyes widened as she came up with an idea.

Terra heard growling coming from in front of her, and she turned her head back in time to see the sickle clawed monster getting back up on its feet. Another lightbulb went off in her head at the sight of this, and she tensed herself up as if in preparation to either attack or leap to the side. The monster saw its chosen target position herself in this manner, growled, swung its claws side to side in an intimidating fashion, and then roared at Terra in rage before charging headlong towards her. For a good few minutes, Terra remained standing where she was as the monster charged at her. Then, right as the beast was inches away from swinging its claws at her, the half Markovian abruptly jumped to her left. The monster was only able to shriek in surprise and an almost despairing tone as it found itself moving too fast in its headlong charge to stop itself or turn around, and it crashed straight through the store window Terra had been standing in front of before bouncing across the floor a few times and skidding to a halt inside the abandoned shop on its belly and face.

Terra wasted no time looking back to see what had happened to the monster, and rushed straight to the fire hydrant. Panting and gasping, she hurriedly worked to get the fire hydrant prepared so that she could attach the hose to it for what she now planned to do. With her hands shaking, she found it quite a miracle that she managed to get the hose attached in the necessary fashion at all. And once she had the hose attached, she found herself groaning and screeching as she pulled and pulled at the valve to open the hydrant so as to allow for the water flow she needed. "Good Godfrey," she groaned as she continued to pull at the valve. "Why do firemen always have to make this look so easy?"

As she grunted and squeaked from the tremendous effort she was putting into activating the hydrant, she heard the now all too familiar rumbling noise, and she turned her head to look behind her just in time to see the sickle clawed monster erupt from out of the ground directly in front of the shattered store window she'd tricked it into charging through, and it landed right on its feet in a crouching position, its claws extended to its sides.

Panting in terror at the sight of the monster having returned, she turned her head back to face the hydrant once more and pulled at the valve even more desperately. The monster growled repeatedly as it watched the half Markovian desperately attempting to achieve her own salvation against it, its face showing half rage and half smug satisfaction. It then leaned forward, almost purring now, and started repeatedly scraping its claws against the sidewalk, sharpening them with a nightmarishly audible shrieking noise. Clearly, it wasn't in any hurry now that Terra was seemingly completely at its mercy.

Then Terra heard an audible squeak and felt the valve seemingly snap into a new position before she then heard water starting to rush through the hose and sprinkle out of the end that wasn't attached to the hydrant itself. Panting in both relief and exhaustion, Terra hurriedly turned away from the hydrant and grabbed onto the unattached end of the hose. The monster leaned forward and roared in beastly triumph towards Terra.

But then the monster found itself coughing and spluttering when it ended up getting a real mouthful of water squirted in there by Terra's hose. And even after it closed its mouth, the water continued to splash it irritatingly in the face. The monster howled and shrieked as it swiped at the water spouting into its face, hissing in disgust and irritation as it felt the water continue to pound away at it. At the sight of the monster clearly not enjoying the splashing it was getting in its face and the sound of its almost pained hissing, Terra couldn't help but make a smirk of juvenile self-satisfaction. "Yeah, that better hurt," she thought to herself smugly.

Then, all of a sudden, the water jet explosively transformed into a considerably bigger and stronger blast of water that completely engulfed the monster. The monster roared in what seemed to be a mixture of agony and despair as the water consumed it. Terra even ended up letting go of the hose in shock at the sudden explosive burst that had just come out of it.

The giant blast of water continued to ram away at the monster, which managed to unleash a final despairing roar before it then shattered into multiple small rocks and pebbles. Then, much to Terra's further surprise, the water jet began to seemingly move completely on its own like a snake and twisted around her and towards the area behind her. She turned around just in time to see Aqualad gesturing his hands in sync with the water while the three monsters he'd been battling gaped at the water in apparent shock. Then Aqualad caused the water to move straight to him and started spinning around right as the water started to hover by his right side, causing the water to move with him and form a spinning tornado of water around him. And as the Atlantean began to spin faster and faster, the water tornado expanded and sped up until it was rapidly gyrating and about the size of the nearest building. The monsters watched in both fear and awe, too stunned to move.

Then Aqualad stopped spinning, and the tornado appeared to split into three serpentine streams of water that Aqualad caused to hover above him threateningly by spreading his hands outward to his sides. As Aqualad held the ominous trio of water streams above his head and stared straight at the monsters, the three remaining monsters finally managed to realize what was actually happening, and look down to face the Atlantean. But by that point, it was too late for the monsters to do anything. Too late did the three monsters turn their attention away from the water and look towards the young boy controlling the water. Too late did the three monsters gaze upon the teen hero who had only minutes ago vanquished their comrade. Too late did the three monsters finally return their attention to their original target that they had been supposed to knock out and capture alive for their creator.

With a harsh yell of rage, Aqualad snapped his hands forward, and the three streams of water went rocketing straight at the three remaining mole-like rock monsters, engulfing them completely and buffering at them so strongly that they started to crack all over. The three monsters howled and shrieked in agony as they felt themselves cracking from the impact of the water against their bodies. Within minutes, they had just enough time to unleash a final despairing roar in unison before they all shattered into pieces with a resounding banging noise.

As soon as the monsters were all shattered, Aqualad released the energy keeping the water streams intact, and the water came crashing down on the ground before seeping through the cracks deep down underground. Aqualad, panting and gasping from the effort of controlling the water, turned to face Terra, who gave a smile of approval and relief while also giving him a thumbs up. "That was seriously badass," Terra stated in a tone that sounded almost like admiration, her blue eyes shining.

Aqualad chuckled, rubbed the back of his head with his right hand, and responded, "Thanks."

The silence in the air was then shattered by an earthshaking roar. Terra and Aqualad's eyes widened at the sound of this roar, for they recognized it as the same kind of roar that was uttered by Beast Boy when the shape shifter was in t-rex mode. The Atlantean and half Markovian turned their heads in the direction they'd heard the roar coming from, now clearly remembering that their friends from Jump City were at this point definitely in the midst of a battle against Geo-Force.

Aqualad then turned his head to look back at Terra. "We've gotta help them."

Terra turned her own head to look the Atlantean in the eyes. "How?"

The Atlantean looked at the fire hydrant, then back at Terra. "Wasn't there a fountain back in the area where Geo-Force was hovering?"

. . . . .

The large green t-rex crashed against the front wall of a nearby building, roaring in pain from the impact. Several feet ahead of where the dinosaur had landed, the ginger haired metahuman responsible for punching it away was locked in fist to fist combat with Cyborg.

"You're gonna wish you hadn't done that!" Cyborg yelled, clearly not very pleased with Geo-Force for smacking Beast Boy away.

Geo-Force growled, and swung his left fist at Cyborg. Cyborg dodged, and then head butted the geomancer in the face. The geomancer head butted Cyborg right back, sending the half robot flying backwards. Cyborg landed on his back and bounced a couple times before skidding to a halt.

Geo-Force snorted angrily, dusted off his sleeves with his fists, and then rushed over towards Cyborg. Beast Boy, having at that point recovered, lunged towards Geo-Force from behind as a tiger; but Geo-Force knocked him away with another swing of his arm. Robin leaped at Geo-Force from the geomancer's right, his bo staff at the ready, only to be knocked aside in the same fashion as Beast Boy. Starfire rocketed towards Geo-Force from behind and to his right, only for Geo-Force to lean backwards in time for her to sail right past him. Soon after this, Starfire's eyes widened in surprise and she screamed right as she found herself hurtling towards Raven, who had been swooping towards Geo-Force herself in the opposite direction. The two girls collided in midair and tumbled to the ground.

Geo-Force chuckled at the sight of the two girls lying around on the ground, only to be then sent stumbling to the side by a sonic laser blast. Cursing at having let his guard down at that crucial moment, Geo-Force turned to face Cyborg, who was now on his feet and still had the guilty sonic cannon activated and aimed at Geo-Force. But then the geomancer was sent stumbling forwards when he felt a pounding impact come upon his back and send him sprawling on his belly. The geomancer looked up and behind him in time to see a smug looking green kangaroo hopping up and down near the area he'd been standing.

At the sight of the kangaroo that had obviously kicked him in the back, Geo-Force growled, got up on his feet, and lifted up his right fist. Unfortunately for the geomancer, before he could slam his now glowing yellow fist down on the ground between him and the changeling, he was sent stumbling to the side again when an explosive fire disk suddenly landed and exploded right next to him from the left. And as he went stumbling to the side, he ended up turning around to directly face the area where Starfire and Raven had landed just in time for the two girls to blast him in the chest with a stream of star bolt energy and a bolt of shadowy lightning that they shot from their hands.

Geo-Force went flying backward, landing on his back in the very center of the circle that the Titans had effectively formed around him. With the geomancer incapacitated, the Titans all started rushing towards him from their respective directions, with Beast Boy even turning into a wild boar and squealing at the downed enemy in what sounded like an enraged tone. But before the Titans could reach a sufficient distance with which to finish him off, Geo-Force leaped back on his feet and slammed his fists on the ground, causing a ring of boulders to pop up from the ground and levitate around him that he then caused to expand outward in an explosive fashion towards the charging heroes. Each of the Titans was sent flying backward by the impact of a boulder slamming into them, though Raven was able to soften the blow somewhat by summoning a shadow shield seconds before the boulder that was directly in front of her crashed into her. Starfire and the boys, however, weren't so lucky, and received the full force of the impact from their respective boulders. Beast Boy even let out an agonized squeal as he went flying backward and bounced painfully across the ground after getting hit by his respective boulder.

Soon after all the Titans managed to get back on their feet, they heard Geo-Force yell, "Give up!" They all looked straight at the geomancer, and saw him standing tall in a tensed and hunched over position with his fists clenched. However, what really got their attention was the fact that not only were Geo-Force's eyes now glowing a solid yellow, but that his entire body was now encased in a golden yellow aura. At the sight of these details, the Titans briefly found themselves feeling very unnerved, for the sight awakened unpleasant memories of how Terra herself had looked very similar in regard to eyes and body aura during her past experiences with them.

Geo-Force growled, now clearly quite angry. "You can't win!" he roared, and then lifted up his left foot ominously. The Titans' eyes all widened at the sight of this, for it was very clear that if Geo-Force stomped his foot down at that moment, the result would be an earthquake.

But then the ground started shaking. The Titans briefly flinched, until they then realized that Geo-Force hadn't yet stomped his foot. In fact, the geomancer was now actually teetering off balance from the shaking, his yellow glowing eyes and body aura gone, clearly thrown for a loop and just as confused as the Titans were. Then the six combatants heard what sounded like rapidly bubbling water coming from the area where the broken fountain was located, and they all looked in that direction.

As if right on cue with the six battling onlookers, the bubbling noise turned into an ugly gurgling noise coming from right underneath the wreckage of the fountain. Upon noticing these two elements, the Titans all looked each other in the eyes, clearly having managed to put two and two together and get four. Geo-Force, however, briefly narrowed his eyes in confusion, only for his eyes to then widen in horror when he finally realized what was happening.

But by that time, it was too late for Geo-Force. Seconds after Geo-Force finally realized what was going on, a massive spout of water erupted from the fountain and towered over the six combatants. The Titans all looked at each other again, and then wordlessly agreed that it was time to make their exit. In a flash, they all leaped and swooped away to the side so as to make way for what they had a feeling would come next. Geo-Force, however, walked backwards in a mixture of awe and fear, too stunned from the sight of the massive geyser to think clearly enough to dodge to the side the way his adversaries had just done.

Then the water geyser began to twist and squirm like a snake. And in this very fashion, it then reared up and back into a very snake-like position before then rapidly extending forward straight towards Geo-Force in the exact fashion that a snake would when in the midst of biting at a target. The sight of the water rapidly moving towards him was enough to shake the geomancer out of his daze, and he had just enough time to yell a despairing "NO!" before the tip of the water spout plowed into him and sent him rocketing backwards.

For what seemed like an eternity to the geomancer, the water continued to rush unheeded in its straightforward charge, pushing Geo-Force along with it. Then the water started to move upwards, raising Geo-Force up high into the air. And minutes later, right as Geo-Force was starting to wonder just how high the water would go, the water stream's made a flip through the air and plummeted down to the ground, causing Geo-Force to go pounding against the hard asphalt with a painful slam, all the water piling up and splashing down on top of him in the process and spreading outward across the streets in the vicinity.

When the water finally drained away, Geo-Force managed to painfully get up onto his hands and knees, and he looked over towards the area he'd been standing in before getting swept away by the water, and saw the Titans standing once more in the area they'd been in before the water spout had come, but now Aqualad was standing not too far behind them. And as he watched this scene with narrowed eyes, Geo-Force soon noticed that the strange civilian girl that had been accompanying Aqualad before was also standing there right next to the Atlantean.

Geo-Force briefly leaned further in the direction of the Titans to attempt to get a somewhat closer look at the blonde civilian girl. Now that he had seen her a second time, and this time with his own unaffected vision as opposed to through seismic footstep sensing, he had a strange feeling that he'd perhaps seen her before. Then he shook his head with his eyes closed, clearing his thoughts. Whether he'd seen that girl or not before now, that didn't matter. He had more important things to worry about now.

Growling, Geo-Force got up onto his feet, dusted off his uniform, and directed a withering glare at the six teenage heroes and their apparent civilian companion. Pointing his finger at them in an almost accusatory fashion, he managed to spit out, "You may have defeated me here this time, Titans! But you have won nothing today!"

The geomancer straightened up, his chest puffed out, his fists hanging down by his sides, and his legs tensed up as if ready to lift up and stomp down. "One way or another, you will not succeed in the end to stop me, let alone foil my master's plan the way you've foiled the plots of so many other villains, including my master's own superior! Sooner or later, you will all go down, and your little civilian to!"

Geo-Force then pointed his finger at Aqualad. "And as for you Atlantean!" He paused, a tense look of rage on his face as he worked with a very clear effort to keep himself from blowing up in a sheer unadulterated explosion of fury. "Somehow or other, no matter how long it takes, what you try, or who you summon to try to stop me, you will become a prisoner in your tower alongside your comrades! And once my master arrives, he will convert you and your fellow captive friends just like he's done to me!"

Geo-Force stomped his foot, causing a large boulder to pop out from underneath the geomancer's feet and then hover up into the air with Geo-Force on top. The Titans, Aqualad, and Terra looked upwards to face the hovering geomancer on his floating boulder transport. The geomancer scowled down at the seven onlookers. "If you want to see your fellow Titans East members in one piece ever again Atlantean," Geo-Force yelled, "you will surrender yourself to me by the end of the week!" He snapped his fingers, and the boulder he was standing suddenly rocketed through the sky in the direction of the Titans East Tower with a bang.

The Titans blinked at the sight of the geomancer and his floating boulder transport vanish so quickly, and then turned to look behind them just in time to see a yellow, orange, and brown blur zooming through the sky towards the island where Titans Tower East was located. For a few minutes long after the disappearance of Geo-Force, the Titans, Aqualad, and Terra continued to stare in the vanished geomancer's direction of flight. Then they heard the sound of footsteps behind them, and they turned around in time to see a large group of nervous looking people starting to come out of various hiding spots.

At the sight of this, the seven teenagers looked each other in the eyes, and then back at the civilians. They all knew what the right thing to do now was. Granted, Geo-Force still was at large, and the rest of Titans East was still held captive and now clearly had the rest of the weak at most to either be rescued or joined in captivity by Aqualad before Geo-Force likely began to somehow cut pieces off of them without killing them. But right now, the matter that was of most immediate importance was that the innocent civilians that Geo-Force had harmed and terrified in his recent rampage of chaos in Steel City were safe and ok. And as heroes, it was quite naturally their duty to make sure that proper relief effort and aid was provided to the victims of disasters, regardless of whether or not the disasters were manmade or of natural origins. And so, the seven teenagers proceeded to push the matter of Geo-Force and the remaining members of Titans East to the backs of their heads for the current moment and step forward to start checking on all the civilians.

 **And just like that, another chapter done! Here's to hoping you enjoyed, and that you leave a respectable amount of feedback (sans flames; God I DREAD those). And coming up next, it's time for us to switch back to how things are going for the captive members of Titans East. Sound exciting? I certainly hope so!**


	7. House Hostages

**Hiya people! Wow, it's only been 10 days since I last updated! I must really be on a role! ^_^ Well nevermind that, here's to hoping you all enjoy this new chapter, read it, and review it! And in this specific addition to the story, we briefly take a break from Aqualad, Terra, and the Jump City Titans for the sake of paying a much needed visit to what is happening to the rest of Titans East! Sound exciting? I certainly hope so! Once again, have fun!**

 **A/N: But first, just to cover my legal bases, I do not own Teen Titans, or DC period.**

 **Chapter 6:**

 **House Hostages**

Speedy clenched his fists, his masked eyes narrowed in a harsh glare as he glowered at the odious bars of solid brown rock that stood before him. "If I were armed," he thought to himself bitterly, "that upstart would most certainly not have been so confident as to place me within so pathetic a prison as the one he now dares to hold me in."

And indeed, if the ginger haired archer had even a single arrow left in his quiver, his current imprisonment would have been a piece of cake to escape from. As of the current moment, he and the rest of the Titans East members that Geo-Force hadn't successfully taken prisoner in his attack from two days prior were being held prisoner in the basement of Titans Tower East. Upon apprehending Speedy, Geo-Force had wasted no time in transferring the archer, plus Bumblebee, Mas, and Menos, the latter two having had to be knocked out beforehand, to the basement of the tower and placing them under confinement in his own unique fashion before then proceeding to lay waste to the interior of the tower, encasing the majority of the exterior with earthen casing, and summoning other earthen elements to put his own twisted decoration take on the interior.

As for the conditions under which the four captive Titans were now being held under, Speedy snarled again as he thought of how very laughably easy it would have been for all of them to get free if their captor hadn't deliberately set the odds against them very clearly in his own favor if they so much as made an attempt.

Bumblebee's imprisonment was unique in that there were virtually no physical barriers keeping her contained. Rather, she was currently very precariously dangling over a massive gaping chasm that Geo-Force had caused to form directly in the center of the basement with her wrists and hands encased in two blunt pointed stalactites that Geo-Force had caused to extend down from the ceiling. Under normal conditions, the fearless leader of Titans East would not have had any need for such restraints to prevent her from falling into the seemingly quite impossibly deep chasm, and was in fact perfectly strong enough physically to swing herself into a position in which she could press her feet up against the ceiling so as to provide her with enough of a foothold for her to break free from them by simply pulling against them with enough force. But unfortunately, Geo-Force had very cruelly ensured her need to keep her restraints intact by taking the precaution of savagely slicing at her wings with summoned stalactites, stalagmites, and other sharp stony elements. Granted, he hadn't detached her wings from her body, but he had still sliced and torn at them so horridly that they looked almost like iridescent slender ripped up curtains that now hung uselessly from her back. Of course, her wings would eventually reform back into their original shape, but it would take several days of rest for her wings to fully regenerate. And even after being fully restored back to their original shape, it would still take another couple days or so for them to regain the strength she would need for them to support her weight sufficiently enough to allow her to fly. Needless to say, at the current moment, despite how easy it was for Bumblebee to free herself from her physical restraints, she now had no other choice but to let herself remain bound to them so as to avoid plummeting to her doom in the depths of the virtual canyon gaping beneath her. And right this very moment, she was currently hanging limp over the chasm, seemingly passed out, groaning in pain from what had happened to her wings.

For the case of Mas and Menos, Geo-Force had subjected them to an even crueler fate from a psychological perspective compared to the more physical form of cruelty he'd subjected to their fearless leader. Both of the two twins were pinioned to a wall within the basement by chains of unnaturally strong sand manacled to their wrists. To be fair, their arms were spread out to their sides as opposed to pinioned together behind their backs, but the fact that the chains were even there at all still allowed for a bit of a downer. And despite being strong enough to hold back the two twins, they would be all too easily broken if they ran fast enough. But just like with Bumblebee, Geo-Force had taken precautions. The two twins were positioned on opposite sides of the large chasm that Bumblebee was dangling over, with Mas on the same side as Speedy, and Menos pretty much all on his own on the other side. And with all that space between them, while still able to talk to each other across the distance, there was no way whatsoever they could possibly reach far enough to touch each other and allow themselves to get the speed boost they needed to break themselves free from their sandy chains on their own. In fact, at this very moment, they were now both leaning against their respective walls, taking a nap to recover from their most recent attempt at running free from the chains without use of their super speed.

As for Speedy, the archer was unique among his team mates in that he was not bound or likewise restrained in any way. He was however, quite effectively walled in on all sides in a nearby corner of the basement area where the entrance was located. Two of the walls surrounding him were the natural walls of the basement. The other two walls, however consisted entirely of massive pillars of brown rock that were arranged around the area he was in much like the bars of a cage. As the archer himself had noted, under more fair circumstances, he'd have easily been able to escape. But of course, just like with Bumblebee, Mas, and Menos, Geo-Force had taken precautions. The first such precaution had actually ended up being made for him by Speedy himself as a result of the archer having completely used up an entire quiver's worth of arrows over the course of the battle that had ended in Speedy's own capture. With just one explosive arrow alone, the archer could have easily blasted away just one of the stone pillars to smithereens. And indeed, only one pillar would have needed to be removed to overturn the second precaution that had been taken to prevent Speedy from escaping easily. Since Geo-Force knew that Speedy was still quite capable of holding his own in physical body strength without using his arrows, and just to make sure that the makeshift cage actually served the purpose it was supposed to serve, the geomancer had deliberately summoned the pillars in a fashion that allowed them to be so close together that it would be impossible for Speedy to squeeze himself through the spaces between them.

The archer punched the rock bar directly in front of him, growling inarticulately. "That asshat!" he yelled. "God he's gonna pay for this when I get out of here!" He turned around and started storming in random directions around the area he was contained in, growling and snarling and spouting off obscenities that would have earned him quite a few years' worth of detention in a public school. Eventually, with a final emphatic kick at empty space on the floor, he pressed his back up against one of the walls that didn't consist of rocky cage bars, and slid himself down into a seated position, groaning irritably as he found himself gazing at the row of 'bars' quite a few feet in front of him.

"I'd say it's a darn good thing you didn't wake up the kids from their nap with that racket, because I doubt you'd enjoy explaining to anyone how they managed to gain that quite extensive vocabulary they would have been exposed to otherwise just now."

Speedy grumbled, and looked straight towards the doorway to the basement, where he could now see a familiar figure garbed in green entering the room with her arms folded across her chest in a style that allowed the tips of her sleeves to connect together. His eyes narrowed at the sight of the figure, for even if he hadn't seen her already a good few months ago, let alone the previous day, he would have recognized her anywhere thanks to the dead giveaway that she wore right on her face in the form of a grinning cat-like mask.

"Cheshire," the archer growled through gritted teeth. "We meet again."

Cheshire grinned smugly underneath her distinctive mask, spread her arms and hands out to her sides, and responded, "So we do."

Speedy narrowed his eyes, and spat at the ground. "Well you're here now. You might as well just get whatever it is you've come here for over with and get out. I'm not in the mood to hear you gloating and monologuing about your oh so great master's grand plan today."

"When are you ever in such a mood?" Cheshire asked back in a smug tone of voice. Speedy's eyebrows rose in irritation upon hearing this. Cheshire chuckled, and walked further into the room, intently scanning her surroundings in the process. As she did so, Speedy glared even more angrily at her when he saw the two very sharp looking spears she had strapped to her back in an x-shaped sheath positioned much like a backpack.

Cheshire, thanks to her training and experience from her old assassin life, soon got the feeling that Speedy was watching her, and she turned her head to face him, smirk still on her face as she saw the glare on his face and cleverly deduced just what part of her had gotten him so interested thanks to the fact that his head appeared to be gazing towards her back. "Yes, unlike you and your fearless leader, I am allowed to have weapons on me in this area."

The masked girl then reached behind her and seemingly stroked the two spears strapped to her back, tossing her black hair over her shoulder in the process. "And I will admit, as rarely as I use them, these particular weapons of mine are especially good favorites. After all, not only can I throw them at my enemies, but they also make surprisingly competent close range weapons as well. Talk about double tasking."

Speedy sneered at the former assassin. "Well whoop-di-doo for you," he growled spitefully.

Cheshire merely rolled her eyes, turned away from Speedy, and made her way over towards the edge of the chasm that Bumblebee was dangling over. Her eyes narrowing at the sight of the practically comatose metahuman, Cheshire drew out one of her spears and started lightly tapping at Bumblebee's feet with the tip. Bumblebee groaned at the contact, but otherwise didn't respond. Cheshire tensed up as if annoyed by the lack of response, looking now almost as if she were about to straight up jab her spear through Bumblebee's foot.

Speedy saw this, and immediately jumped to that conclusion. Leaping to his feet, he ran towards the bars of his cage that were directly facing Bumblebee and Cheshire and yelled, "Don't you dare!"

Quick as a snake, Cheshire turned to face Speedy and threw the spear towards him. Speedy just barely managed to dive down to the floor in time to avoid getting skewered right in the face by the spear, which jabbed to a clanging halt straight into a nearby wall behind him. Speedy turned his head to look at the spear, and found himself silently whistling at the sight of the weapon and its current location. "Yeesh," he thought to himself. "She's lethal."

"Consider that a warning."

Speedy looked back at Cheshire, who was now standing tensely in a position that allowed her to directly face him. Even with her maddeningly grinning mask on, the archer had a strong feeling that she was probably glaring at him. "I'd strongly recommend you not get on my bad side boy," she hissed. "Test my patience enough, and I may very well disobey my master's wishes and kill you."

Speedy only chuckled upon hearing this comment. "Well you'd certainly have quite a bit of explaining to do if you were to do that and your master arrived in time to find that he now has two Titans short for conversion instead of just one when he sees me lying here in my cell with my throat slit."

"I'm serious!" Cheshire snapped, her hand reaching reflexively behind her towards her other spear. "And why would I slit your throat? Considering our history, I'd sooner slice your bloody head off!"

Despite the clear hostility in the masked girl's tone, Speedy still made sure not to show any sign of weakness or fear. In fact, he went so far as to pretend to yawn, stare back at Cheshire in an almost bored tone, and then say in apparent disinterest, "Oh really; well in that case, for my last meal before execution on death row, I'd like a cheeseburger with . . . uh . . . extra onions."

Cheshire directed a blank look towards the ginger haired archer, feeling both dumbfounded and grudgingly respectful of how cavalier he was acting towards the whole situation at that particular moment. "You think you're funny don't you?" she then asked in a deadpan tone of voice.

Speedy chuckled, directed an almost patronizing smirk towards the former teen assassin, and responded, "Darling, I think I'm adorable."

Cheshire rolled her eyes under her mask. "No," she stated flatly. "Cats are adorable. You, are way too rough and ragged to be adorable."

"You know what they say; looks can be deceiving," Speedy countered with his smirk still on his face.

"Yes, I indeed know the value of not judging a book by its cover. And believe me, when it comes to you, I've looked so thoroughly at the pages that my eyes have started to bleed. And from what I've managed to compile on you in your file I have, I can tell that you're quite a jerk. And don't try to deny it; you know it's true, and so do your friends."

Speedy chuckled, shook his head side to side, and then said, "I like to think of myself as a jerk with a heart of gold."

"Oh really?" Cheshire asked. "Well if that's the case, then perhaps I ought to slice your heart out and sell it on the black market. I hear gold can sell for quite a large sum of money."

Speedy chuckled again, but this time there was a notably humorless tone to his voice, and his eyes had now narrowed in a more than a little irritated fashion. "You just like to suck the joy out of everything don't you?"

"What can I say? It's my specialty; well that, and killing people."

Speedy snorted, rolled his eyes, and then got back up on his feet and walked straight up to the bars of the stony cage wall directly in front of him. "Well boo to the freaking hoo for me then," he growled.

Cheshire chuckled, now feeling fully in good spirits once more, and she turned around to look in the direction of Mas. "Now that I think about it," Cheshire then stated offhandedly. "I can't help but feel a sense of Déjà vu. Wasn't it just 4½ months or so ago when I captured you while working for the Brotherhood?"

Speedy growled quite loudly upon receiving this reminder, clenching his fists with an audible almost popping sounding noise for good measure. "Don't. Remind. Me."

Cheshire chuckled, now feeling quite proud to have gotten a rise out of the ginger haired archer. She then started rubbing her fingers through her hair. "I have to admit, another reason I have to find pity in that my master wants you and your friends alive and unharmed is how that means I can't even take the time to torture you. Believe me, considering how strongly denied I was of that same opportunity while working for the Brotherhood before they froze you, I was really looking forward to get a second chance at it. And that being said, if I were to have my way here, I'd really make you suffer."

Speedy only chuckled in an almost growling tone. "And I'm sure you'd know _everything_ about suffering, now wouldn't you?"

Cheshire's eyes narrowed behind her mask upon hearing the sarcastic tone in Speedy's voice. She turned around to face the archer. "What's that supposed to mean?!" she hissed.

Speedy chuckled again, spat at the ground next to him, and then looked back at Cheshire. "You heard me," he stated. "You really think you can make me suffer pussy cat?"

Cheshire snarled, her cat-like mask strengthening the effect of the equally cat-like noise. "Don't call me that."

"Or what?" Speedy snapped back with a smirk on his face. "You can't do anything to me. Even if you were allowed to torture me, there's nothing you can do that I can't grin and bear my way through!"

"You have no idea what I'm capable of you cowardly scumbag!" Cheshire roared, pointing her right pointer finger threateningly at Speedy.

"Oh I think I do," Speedy purred back. "And I don't think I'd have anything to worry about when it comes to any kind of torture _you_ can come up with."

"You dare insult me and my intelligence?!" Cheshire snapped.

"This from a girl who wears a hilariously dopey looking mask," Speedy countered with a wolfish grin on his face, now clearly enjoying the rises he was getting out of his masked old foe.

Cheshire growled and hissed inarticulately, too enraged now to voice out any coherent words.

Speedy chuckled once more, pointed his finger at Cheshire, and then stated, "You think you can make me suffer? I don't know what you've got in that file on me you say you have, but in my life from before I became a Titan, I suffered way too much to fear torture anymore."

The archer walked closer to the stony bars separating him from the outside of his cage. "If you knew half the crap I went through before my days as a Titan, you would know how pointless it is to threaten me with torture. No matter what you, or anyone else, might think of to subject me to in a torture chamber, I'd sooner laugh my face off in the face of a Game of Thrones level flaying beginning from the toes and working its way up before I'd come even _close_ to suffering the way I did from when I was still at elementary school age; heck, I suffered at such a level when I was even _younger_ than elementary school age."

Speedy came to a stop directly in front of a small gap between two of the bars of his cage, pointed his finger at Cheshire, and then stated, "You think you can make me suffer after the piss storm I've weathered my way through before now? Well regardless of what you might personally believe, I don't think so in the slightest." The archer leaned forward, a half arrogant smirk and half angry snarl on his face. "I may not have literally gone to Hell the way my close friend from the group Aqualad's bringing here is doomed to do if he doesn't find a way to escape without causing his fellow founders to die all over again, but I've been through enough of a figurative Hell and plenty of high water to harden up into a competent hero that can brave his way through a tiny bit of mortal torture. Can you even _hope_ to reach me on _that_ kind of level with whatever torture you can hope to think of? No you can't. Like I said, you know _nothing_ about suffering."

Cheshire snarled savagely, and would have been spitting in fury if it weren't for the mask covering her face. "Don't push me archer!"

"Or what?!" Speedy growled back. "You can't do anything to me! You couldn't do anything to me even if you were _allowed_ to! You don't know what kind of emotional pain I've been through that would render any attempts at recreating it through physical torture obsolete! You don't know what it's like to go through the kind of Hell I've been through!"

"You don't know that," Cheshire snarled. "You. Don't. Know. The. Half. Of. It. How can you possibly know any of it when you don't even know a darn thing about me?"

"You're a _villain_ ," Speedy spat, very bitterly emphasizing the word 'villain' as if it were poison in his mouth. "In fact, at this point, you're basically my own personal nemesis just as much as Lex Luther is to Superman, or as Joker is to Batman, or as Cheetah is to Wonder Woman, or as Professor Zoom is to Flash, or even as Slade is to Robin! I don't _need_ to know your backstory! And besides, it's not like your backstory would be all that interesting compared to mine anyway! For all I know, you probably had two loving biological parents that doted upon you and spoiled you all throughout your childhood!"

"Don't you start," Cheshire snarled.

"For all I know, you probably joined whatever facility you trained at to become an assassin at elementary school age and excelled there as a prodigy and passed with rocketing colors!"

"You dare insinuate . . ." Cheshire hissed.

"For all I know, your parents were probably proud criminals that enrolled you there themselves and are probably still proud to this day of what you have become since then!"

"DON'T PUSH ME YOU COWARDLY SNAKE!" Cheshire howled in pure rage.

"FACE IT!" Speedy roared back with a mixture of smugness and anger. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE PEOPLE SUFFER, LET ALONE PEOPLE LIKE ME! BECAUSE UNLIKE ME, WHO ACTUALLY _KNOWS_ WHAT IT MEANS TO SUFFER, YOU'VE SPENT YOUR ENTIRE FREAKING LIFE SINCE FREAKING CHILDHOOD WITH A FREAKING SILVER SPOON IN YOUR FREAKING MOUTH!"

Within what seemed like seconds, Cheshire abruptly popped right in front of Speedy, grabbed him by the hair and yanked his head and neck through the bars before then rapidly drawing out her second spear and placing the sharp end of the intimidating tip against his throat. Speedy's masked eyes widened at the sight of Cheshire now quite literally face to face with him with her spear jabbing up against his throat. He hadn't even seen her run to her current position from where she'd been standing when he was in the midst of his tirade. But what was even worse was how he could feel the tip of the spear pressing tightly up against the very center of his neck.

But then Speedy caught a metallic gleam coming from the tip of said spear, and he directed his eyes downward towards the tip just in time to find himself feeling even more wary when he noticed one tiny detail that had managed to completely escape him before now. The tip of the spearhead, and in fact every side of the spearhead, was serrated with diamond edged ridges. He gulped mentally upon making note of this detail, not daring to actually gulp for real for fear of the motion causing his neck to get sliced up by the tip of the spear. He now also had a feeling that the other spear that Cheshire had earlier thrown at him had a similar diamond edged spearhead.

Cheshire snarled in rage, and the archer promptly directed his attention back directly to her. She leaned her face closer to Speedy rapidly, her masked face now inches away from the archer's own. "DON'T YOU _EVER_ MAKE FUN OF MY PAST AND I LIKE THAT AGAIN! YOU DON'T KNOW JACK ABOUT WHAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH AND YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO BLINDLY ASSUME SUCH THINGS ABOUT ME WHEN YOU YOURSELF STRESSED TO ME HOW IMPORTANT IT WAS TO LOOK BEYOND A BOOK'S COVER!"

Speedy gasped and panted in surprise and fear at both the spear that was still pressed up to his throat and the pure savagery of Cheshire's tone. For a moment, he was about to say at least something in response when Cheshire very slightly increased the pressure of the spear tip pressing against Speedy's throat. "NO! DON'T YOU DARE! YOU SO MUCH AS SAY ANOTHER WORD TO ME RIGHT NOW, AND I WILL JAB THIS SPEAR RIGHT THROUGH YOUR NECK! YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"

Speedy closed his mouth, and very slightly nodded his head up and down. Cheshire snarled, but slightly relieved the pressure on Speedy's throat so that he could breathe more easily while she talked to him. "Do you really think that I wanted from a young age to be the person that I've become? Do you think that I actually _enjoy_ committing the despicable actions I have done? Do you really honestly believe that with every deed I do, I am eternally smiling just like my mask?"

Speedy thought to himself, quite uncertain as to how to answer. Truth be told, he honestly had assumed something of the sort. It was the natural thing to guess in his point of view. Still, at the current moment, he wasn't entirely certain if it would truly be the wisest of ideas for him to admit such information, let alone how he would say that to Cheshire if he did admit these thoughts aloud to her.

Fortunately for Speedy, in a certain point of view, the archer's extended silence and seeming indecisiveness seemed to be answer enough for Cheshire, and she sighed beneath her mask, and then hung her head. "I will admit, most of the people that I have worked for in the past do indeed fit such a description."

She looked back up, her eyes now closed underneath her mask. "But for some villains, remove the mask, and there is a very different person lying beneath." She then opened her eyes and looked straight at Speedy. "And if you knew half the crap that _I've_ been through, you would know better than to tease and mock me about my past."

At that moment, Speedy managed to look closely enough at Cheshire's face to see through the greenish glass coverings inside the eye spaces of her mask, and saw what appeared to be a mixture of rage and sadness in her eyes. And at the sight of this, Speedy let out a second mental gulp, for he had seen that same look in his own eyes during his pre-Titan days a large majority of the times he'd ever looked in a mirror. And in that instant, he soon began to find himself wondering, was there more to Cheshire hidden beneath her mask than just her face?

Cheshire then sighed, lowered her weapon, let go of Speedy's hair, and turned around to face the still open doorway to the stairs leading down to the basement. "I may be the Slade to your Robin," she moaned bitterly. "But you know nothing about me." Her spear now lowered to the point of the tip just a couple inches away from dragging across the floor, Cheshire started slowly walking over to the exit, her head now hung slightly as well. After a few minutes, as Speedy continued to watch in a mixture of both apprehension and sympathy, the masked young woman went through the doorway and started walking back up the stairs, the sound of her spear tip tapping against the steps echoing down into the basement as its wielder ascended. Then Speedy heard the sound of the door at the top of the stairs opening and closing. Cheshire had now left the area completely.

For a few seconds more, Speedy remained in the exact position he'd been in when Cheshire had first snatched him by the hair against her spear. Then, when he finally thought that it would be safe for him to change position, he relaxed into a less tensed up position, panting in relief. "I am so lucky to be alive right now," he thought to himself.

Then, after getting his breath back completely, he found a small saddened frown coming onto his face as he thought of what Cheshire had said not too long before she left. "Maybe I should look into her a little more," he thought to himself. Then he looked back at the stony cage bars in front of him, and his masked eyes narrowed into a glare yet again. "But first, I need to get out of this freaking cage!"

He rapidly turned around to face the opposite un-barred walls, kicking up some dust angrily with a snort in the process. But then he reared up in surprise as he noticed a key detail that he'd completely forgotten about over the course of egging Cheshire on and being at risk of getting impaled through the neck by said young woman. The first spear that Cheshire had thrown at him was still embedded in the hardened titanium wall. "And I guess Cheshire must have either forgotten about this as well, or just simply thought it was too much of a hassle to try to fit her entire body through the bars of this cage to retrieve it," the archer thought to himself as he walked over to where the spear was.

He reached the area where the spear was, grabbed onto the handle and gently pulled it out of the wall. Upon extraction of the spear, the archer flipped it over so that he could get a good look at the spearhead. As it turned out, just like he'd theorized while he'd had the other spear against his throat, this spear did indeed have a serrated diamond-edged spearhead. Then he felt a lightbulb go off in his head. "Hmm, I wonder," he said to himself quietly as he considered the possibility that had just recently arisen in his head. He turned to face the stony cage bar wall directly in front of the wall that the spear had been embedded in, walked quietly over to it, and stretched the spear in his arms as high up as he could go before then sliding it downward in a straight vertical cut across the service of the stony bar he was now standing in front of. With little more than a small metallic shriek, a wire-thin gash was left across the surface of the stony pillar.

Already the archer's small ember of hope was starting to get stronger, and he repositioned the spear so that he had the spear horizontally oriented above the ground at the base of the bar he'd just sliced at before then beginning to carefully saw away at the bottom. A few minutes later, Speedy found his ember of hope burst into a full on bonfire of delight when he found himself reaching the point that he'd now sawed right through the cage bar sufficiently enough to allow half of the spear tip to be covered up the remainder of the pillar while sawing.

Smiling happily, his blue eyes agleam underneath his domino mask, Speedy withdrew the spear from the cage bar he'd been sawing at, an almost deranged look of pleasure on his face as he thought about the now very real chance of salvation he now had to escape from the otherwise insultingly ludicrous prison that Geo-Force had placed him in. "With this weapon," he thought to himself smugly, "I can saw my way out of this prison within two or three days."

Then Speedy's eyes widened again, but this time in apprehension. "Wait a minute," he then thought to himself. "What if Cheshire or Geo-Force see me using this? They might take it away! And worse yet, Geo-Force may then reinforce the bars!" Cursing mentally, he clutched at the spear, his mind racing furiously as he thought of what he could do to keep Geo-Force and Cheshire from becoming aware of his possession of the spear and his using it to saw his way out of his cage.

In the midst of his thoughts, he managed to look around, and his eyes widened once more as he caught side of a decently sized cairn of small boulders piled up nearby one of the back corners of his cell. "Eureka!" he thought to himself as he rushed over to the pile of stones. He reached the cairn, placed one hand on top, and then gently placed the spear down on the floor behind him as he started examining the pile of stones further. He then removed one small stone from the bottom, and found that there was ample empty space in the interior of the cairn for him to slip the spear into when he needed it to be hidden. "Perfect," he thought to himself. He picked the spear back up, slid it into the empty space within the cairn, and then placed the stone he'd removed back where he'd found it. Right now, he could afford to take a break from sawing at the stone pillar. If he tried to make too much progress at this point, he was certain that there would be high odds of him getting caught in the act anyway. And right now, he could not afford to get caught. Smiling to himself, he looked back in the direction of the exit to the basement. "Cheshire," he whispered to himself in half smug satisfaction and half admiration. "You may redeem yourself yet."

 **And just like that, another chapter done! Boy I'm hoping you enjoy this one! And feel free to comment on whatever you'd like regarding this chapter (though flames will be frowned upon). And for that matter, feel free to look up Speedy and Cheshire's pasts on the internet if you wish. Trust me, like they both said this chapter, they went through some serious business! But nonetheless, please do enjoy and review!**

 **Coming up next: After the humiliating setback that has just occurred for his master's plans, Geo-Force decides it's high time for him to make a little call to his superiors.**


	8. A Meeting with the Master

**Good day everybody! At this time, I now present to you, another chapter! In this chapter, with his earlier defeat at the hands of the Jump City Titans still on his mind, Geo-Force decides to make a much needed call to his superior, and in the process reveals some information that proves quite unsettling for the sake of said master's plans. And with that in mind, here's to hoping you heartily enjoy, read, and review!**

 **A/N: But first, just to quickly cover my legal bases yet again, I do not own Teen Titans! Get it? Got it? Good. Onward with the story!**

 **Chapter 7:**

 **A Meeting with the Master**

Later that afternoon, Geo-Force was pacing back and forth across the sandy shores of the Titans East Island, furiously stewing away at his humiliating setback against Aqualad and the Jump City Titans. "It was a fluke," he thought to himself. "I just wasn't prepared enough."

But even as he had these thoughts, the geomancer cursed himself mentally for even daring to try to make excuses for himself. For he knew perfectly well that his defeat against the Titans earlier that afternoon had been no mere fluke. The Titans had been perfectly capable of holding their own against him, and they had been evenly matched at the very least.

Then Geo-Force thought about the Atlantean, and he growled irritably. "That scoundrel always keeps washing me out when I am on the verge of making a decisive move," he thought to himself bitterly. And just this afternoon, the Atlantean had not only sent him packing for the 2nd time in the space of three days, but had also now managed to do it without help from the archer that had been apprehended on the day in which the 1st time had occurred.

Geo-Force kicked at some of the sand, cursing himself for his rotten luck. "Good Godfrey, I'm turning into Master Savage!" And indeed, Geo-Force quite felt like he was becoming just as careless and presumptuous as the immortal caveman. "I really need to be more careful," he thought to himself. "After all, as much bravado I put up in front of them earlier this afternoon, I still am not above admitting when I've met worthy opponents; and the Jump City Titans definitely fit that bill. And at this point, with how he's managed to evade me this long so far, I might as well start at least _considering_ the Atlantean to be among the same category."

Then the geomancer's thoughts wandered over to the other companion that the Atlantean had brought back to Steel City alongside the Jump City Titans, and he paused in his movements, his eyes narrowing in a mixture of annoyance and confusion as he began to wonder yet again about the mysterious supposed civilian girl. Such an incident of thought had occurred quite a few times now following the battle in Steel City proper, and for the life of him, the geomancer could not, just could not, for some Godforsaken reason or other, get her out of his head. "I feel like I should know her," he thought to himself. "But why _is_ she so familiar?!"

Snarling in irritation, he shook his head rapidly side to side to clear his head. Now was not the time to get distracted. He needed to come up with a new plan to make a comeback against the Titans. But then he stopped moving yet again when he realized, in order to come up with a good enough plan, he would have to inform his two superiors about his earlier failure. And that was not something he was all that keen on doing in the near future.

For a moment, the geomancer took part in a punishing mental wrestling match. While one part of him wanted to maintain his loyalty to his master and let him be made aware of the very real setback that had now occurred in his plans, another part of him was deathly afraid of how said master might punish him for this very meaningful failure. He grimaced, his teeth gritted in a snarl of indecision.

"Be a man!" yelled his more loyal and obedient side.

"You'll die! Rectify it first!" his more fearful and self-preserving side shouted back.

"No!" his loyal side howled. "You are braver then that! Be the good soldier you've always been! Be a man! Tell your master the truth!"

"No!" his fearful side snarled. "All your bravery and obedience won't do you any good if you die! And you know how angry master will be if you tell him about this failure!"

"Well it will be a Hell of a lot worse if the master finds out anyway through a secondhand source!" roared the geomancer's loyal side. "Do not let your fear destroy you! Get the whole unpleasant business over with now!"

"Do not listen!" growled the fearful side. "Let him find out after you rectify the situation first! Just take care of it now, and you'll have it solved in no time!"

"In no time?" the loyal side asked sardonically. "After how very clearly evenly matched you were against just the Jump City Titans alone, and at a clear disadvantage once the Atlantean joined in? I do not think so!"

Geo-Force eventually closed his eyes, willing himself to silence his screaming mental voices so that he could think properly. And think properly he indeed did do. And after a long while, he opened his eyes, straightened up, and drew a jagged black crystal from his belt. "Nothing good can come from keeping it hidden. I'd best let master know about this failure immediately." And with that decision made, the geomancer turned away from the tower, summoned a floating boulder, and mounted it before sending it floating off towards a forest not too far away from Steel City. His loyal side had won the debate.

. . . . .

Half an hour later, Geo-Force was standing near the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea, his dark crystal at the ready in his hand. He briefly clenched and unclenched the fist he'd formed around the crystal, mentally steeling himself for the difficult task he was about to undergo. "No turning back now," he said out loud to himself.

Geo-Force extended his right arm forward with his right fist still clenched around the dark crystal. "Master," he stated, envisioning his dark cloaked superior as he spoke, "I wish to contact you." He threw the crystal down onto the ground at the cliff edge, and the black jewel shattered, expelling what looked like a cloud of black smoke. The smoke swirled and coalesced around at first near the ground before then converging into a swirling vertical black vortex with black clouds of smoke serving as the exterior borders. And then, within the interior, there appeared a vision of none other than the very same dark cloaked being that Geo-Force wished to contact standing in what looked like a small grassy valley. And much to Geo-Force's shock, his master appeared very calm and relaxed, complete with his arms positioned in a stereotypical sleeve tip connecting pose, almost as if he'd actually been expecting for the call.

"You called?" said the cloaked figure, his red eyes agleam with apparent curiosity.

Snapping himself out of his initial shock, Geo-Force cleared his throat, bowed his head slightly in respect for his superior, and then stared into the being's hooded face. "Yes master, I have, and in fact still am," said the geomancer.

"So you are," responded the shadowy figure. "Need I ask the purpose of this call?"

Geo-Force shook his head. "No," responded the geomancer. "For I shall tell you why right now." He then hung his head again, but this time in shame. "I'm sorry to tell you this, but I have failed the task you relayed to me through the masked one. The Titans are still alive and the Atlantean is still at large."

At the sound of this information, the calm look that had been on the face hidden in the darkness inside the figure's hood vanished in an instant, and the red eyes emanating from within narrowed angrily. Geo-Force let no sign of fear come on his face, but he still felt it just the same. "Failed you say?" the figure stated in an ominous tone that sounded much like a bestial growling.

"Yes sir," Geo-Force responded.

"And how might that be possible?" the cloaked figure asked as he proceeded to reposition its arms so that they were folded across his chest.

Geo-Force hung his head, then looked back up. "I underestimated the Teen Titans master. I thought they would be just as easy to defeat as their ancillary sister team here in Steel City turned out to be. Clearly, I was wrong. As it turned out, I was evenly matched against them at the very least. And that was before the Atlantean managed to fight off the monsters I summoned to take on him and some mysterious civilian girl that was with him and intervene."

"The Atlantean intervened you say?" the voice asked, once again in a growling tone.

"That's correct," said Geo-Force.

"And how, may I ask, would it have been possible for the Atlantean to intervene in a way that would made that big of a difference?"

Geo-Force raised his left eyebrow in confusion. "What do you mean?"

The cloaked figure's eyes narrowed once again. "Was the Atlantean anywhere near the ocean?"

"No sir," Geo-Force responded. "I specifically made sure to summon my constructs to head him and the civilian he was with off miles away from the nearest accessible ocean point, and I specifically made sure to stay within an area as far away from the ocean as possible during my fight against the Teen Titans."

"Was there any water at all available in the city that the Atlantean could have accessed with his powers without relying upon his own life force or the water in the air?"

Geo-Force was just to say no when he stopped cold upon realizing just what his master had asked. "Well," he eventually said after a noticeably long pause. "I uh . . ."

"I certainly hope there wasn't," said the cloaked figure with a very angry sounding tone to his voice. "After all, I do believe I explicitly told you when you and Cheshire had that little chat with me yesterday that I wanted the very first thing for you to do for your attack on Steel City to be having the city completed drained and cut off from all drain-based water."

Geo-Force gulped, a blindingly obvious 'oh crap' look on his face, and then awkwardly directed a sidelong glance to his right before then saying, "Well, I may have forgotten that little detail."

The shadowy red-eyed figure face palmed, snarling in rage, and Geo-Force's heart plummeted. "I screwed up even worse than I thought," he thought to himself.

"IDIOT!" the cloaked figure roared. "I _told_ you to drain the stupid city, and yet I hear _this_?! What were you thinking?!"

Geo-Force gulped. "I guess I wasn't," he eventually responded.

"No kidding," his master growled. Then the cloaked figure sighed. "Let me guess, it was that fountain in central square?"

"Yes," Geo-Force said with a hint of surprise. "How'd you know about that fountain?"

His master raised his eyebrows at him, and he instantly felt like a fool for asking. "Hello," the cloaked figure growled, "I've _been_ to this city before, and I have perfectly good memory thank you very much."

"My apologies master," said Geo-Force.

"Whatever," said the cloaked figure, waving his hand in a gesture of dismissal. "But never mind that, the past is the past, and there's nothing we can do to change that. And besides, I'm sure it would be a perfectly honest mistake for you to forget small details, and this may yet only be a temporary setback." He then paused, seemingly just remembering something. "Where are the Titans now?"

"Still in Steel City as far as I know. It appears right now that they currently consider providing aide and relief effort for the damage I caused today their top priority over rescuing the rest of Titans East."

The cloaked figure thought to himself. "That does sound in character for them, particularly since they likely know that the rest of Titans East are very much still alive and, knowing you, they probably can afford to wait a little while before having to worry about any serious _lasting_ damage to befall them."

Geo-Force's eyes narrowed. "And what's _that_ supposed to mean?"

The cloaked figure glared at his subordinate. "Well how long _did_ you give the Titans to give up the Atlantean?"

This question gave Geo-Force pause, and the geomancer hung his head in embarrassment. "I gave him till the end of the week to surrender himself to me; the same day that you said you would arrive at Steel City yourself to convert the prisoners."

"I rest my case," said the dark figure. He then looked to is left for a few minutes. "And knowing the Titans, they will most likely set up camp somewhere in the forest near Steel City, the same forest you're currently standing by as a matter of fact, once they have finished doing everything they can to provide relief effort. And from there, they will come up with an appropriate plan for them to enact in order to take you on at Titans Tower East to rescue the captives."

"Do you wish for me to attack them in the immediate future so as to prevent them from doing this?"

"No," the cloaked figure snarled. "Right now would be far too early. The Titans, the Atlantean, and practically the entire city at this point, is already keyed up and on guard right now. To attack them again this early on after just getting driven off from your first attempt would be most unwise."

Geo-Force thought to himself upon hearing this, and then nodded in consent. He hadn't truly expected to be tasked with the suggestion he'd given, but he'd still asked anyway as a formality.

"However," the cloaked figure then stated. Geo-Force looked up, his intent fully focused on what his master was about to say.

"I would like you to, in some way or other, keep an eye out on the Titans. When they make a plan for when they next go against you, I do not want you, or myself, to be in the dark."

"Understandable," said Geo-Force.

"Also," his master continued. "I want you to wait until you know for certain that the Titans have left Steel City and gone to ground in the forest before you make your next move."

Geo-Force snapped straight to attention. "You want me to make another attack on Steel City?"

"No," his master responded instantly. "That will not be necessary. Your presence has already been quite established; not to mention, any more attacks on that city while the Titans are still in the area will be an exercise in futility."

"I see then," said Geo-Force.

"However, once the Titans have gone to ground in whatever campsite they set up, you can go after _them_."

Geo-Force's eyes widened. "Are you sure that would be wise master?"

"Fear not young one," the cloaked figure calmly stated. "Depending on how long it takes before they do go to ground, they will probably have their guard somewhat lowered. And at that point, it should be relatively easy enough to catch them by surprise."

Geo-Force thought to himself, and then nodded in agreement upon seeing the logic in his master's words. "I see," he said. "Very well then, I shall do as you say."

"Splendid," said the cloaked figure. "Anything else you'd like to bring up?"

Geo-Force thought to himself, moved as if about to respond, and then paused again as he thought once more. The cloaked figure's eyebrows rose, clearly suspicious. Then Geo-Force closed his eyes, nodded his head as if accepting something, and then said with his eyes back open, "Yes, there was one other thing I thought I'd best talk to you about now."

"Go on," said his master.

Geo-Force took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "There was this girl that I noticed with the Titans and the Atlantean."

His master's eyebrows seemed to rise back up. "And why should that interest me?"

Geo-Force clenched his hands together, wringing them nervously. "Well," he then said. "I may or may not have seen her before."

For a split second, Geo-Force could have sworn that the cloaked figure involuntarily tensed up as if in surprise. "You are certain of this?" the figure asked.

"Well I can't say I'm 100% certain," the geomancer admitted. "But it's just that, at around the end of my battle this afternoon, right before I left the scene to return to the tower, I managed to actually get a good look at her with my own unaffected vision as opposed to getting a somewhat uncertain glimpse of her through my seismic resonance sensing, and the way she looked just . . . well . . . seemed to strike a familiar chord in me somewhere, almost as if I knew her somewhere."

The cloaked figure's eyes narrowed in what could have likely qualified as a glare. "Could you describe this girl?"

Geo-Force nodded. "She looked about the same age as the Atlantean and the majority of the Titans, about the same size or smaller than the green one, fair skin, blonde, blue eyed. Looked sort of like she could have been a normal civilian really." He hung his head. "But still, after getting at least a clear, unhindered or similarly affected, actual glimpse of her, even from the distance I was at, she just seemed so familiar to me for some reason, like I could swear that I actually know her, and I still can't get her out of my mind." He looked back up at his master. "Should I know her?"

The cloaked figure growled slightly, his red eyes narrowing ominously. Then his eyes closed, and he took deep breaths to calm himself down. He opened them back up. "I guess I could have made a bigger effort at telling you about her," he admitted.

"You know who she is?" Geo-Force asked.

His master nodded. "Sadly yes," he responded, and then looked straight back at the geomancer's face. "She is an ally of the Titans. In fact, she actually used to be an official member."

Geo-Force's eyes widened. "A member?!" he yelled in surprise. "They let a powerless civilian join them?!"

"Well for one, you don't have to have super powers to be a hero; the leader of the Titans has proven that time and time again; as has his mentor Batman."

Geo-Force thought to himself. "Well yeah, that is true," he admitted, seeing the logic in his master's statement.

"And secondly," the cloaked figure continued, "she wasn't a 'powerless civilian' as you put it at the time she became a member of the Titans. In fact, she used to be a geomancer just like you."

Geo-Force leaned forward, his eyes intently focused on his master with a clear interest on his face. "Really?" he asked in wonderment.

"Indeed," his master confirmed. "Granted, she couldn't control her powers as well as you could; but yes, she was a geomancer like you, and quite a powerful one to."

"Huh," said Geo-Force, his eyes briefly clouding up in wonder and amazement as he processed the information. For a long time, he'd thought himself to be one of the only known geomancers in the world, and was now quite surprised and excited to now realize that there had at one point been another person with the same abilities as himself. "Wait a minute," he then thought aloud. "You said that she _used_ to be a geomancer?"

"That's right."

"Well what happened to her? Why does she not have those powers anymore?"

The cloaked figure hung his head. "A tragic accident." He looked back at his subordinate. "Like I said, in spite of how very powerful she was, she had heartbreakingly high difficulty in controlling her abilities, and she grew to be very insecure and terrified about them and her chances of ever being accepted as a result of all the trouble she accidentally caused. It even reached the point that she tried to keep her lack of control a personal secret, one that all too often got found out and exposed. And then, one fateful night quite a few years ago, after her most recent outing, she ended up being found by an old . . . colleague of mine . . . and she ended up joining forces with him under the promise that he would help her control her powers better and allow her to live and walk through the world with the confidence that she'd always wanted in herself and her powers."

Geo-Force gaped at his master in wonder and intrigue at the story. "I must say, quite fantastic."

"Indeed," his master agreed. "If I may continue?"

"Oh yes, right," Geo-Force admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "Sorry master, do continue."

The cloaked figure nodded. "Having thus been granted the chance at fulfilling one of her most desired wishes, she gladly let my old colleague take her under his wing, and for a time she worked for him in secret against the Titans. But then, her cover was eventually blown, and she left the Titans to solidify her partnership to a public level. And soon after reaching this level, she ended up further cementing her loyalty to her new master by going so far as to attempt to actively destroy the Titans, willingly resorting to lethal methods in her efforts. And all throughout that time, with very helpful assistance from my colleague, she was very much in full control of her powers."

Geo-Force's eyes widened in surprise. "That's . . . impressive," he slowly admitted. "But I don't understand something . . . the Titans . . . they're still alive."

His master nodded sagely. "Indeed they are. For sadly, like the hideously high majority of my colleagues, she just assumed that the Titans were dead, and didn't bother to actually check to make sure that she needed to stick around to finish the job. And as a result of her newfound overconfidence in her own power and fighting prowess, the Titans survived and were able to rise back and make a successful stand against both their treacherous former teammate and the colleague of mine who had taken her in. And as an added bonus for them, the colleague in question was a very big personal nemesis, particularly so to their leader. And then, just to add insult to injury, they even managed to seduce the girl back into the light, and she managed to both put my colleague quite out of commission _and_ reverse a city destroying cataclysm that she'd managed to set into motion in her rage she'd unleashed against said colleague."

The cloaked figure then hung his head. "And after that incident, was when her days as an active member of the war between heroes and villains came to an end. She had unleashed so much power in just that one moment, that her very essence itself became one with the Earth, and she was turned to stone." Geo-Force's eyes widened in horror upon hearing this, and he hurriedly started looking himself and tapping at his body with his hands as if trying to determine whether or not any parts of him had turned to stone.

His master continued, seemingly not noticing his subordinate's current behavior. And for about 2½ years that followed, she remained frozen as a statue, still alive underneath the stone outer layer encasing her in a tortured unwilling sleep. And then, just this past November actually, the spell she'd unwittingly placed upon herself was broken, and she was released from her enforced hibernation imprisonment. However, while her memories were able to return within mere minutes, her powers had gone dormant, and would take some very specific criteria and exposure to ever return. And so, for the last few months since, she attempted to live out the rest of her life as an ordinary civilian. But as has now been proven evident, fate had other ideas." The cloaked figure looked back at Geo-Force. "And the rest, as you have quite soundly experienced, is history."

Geo-Force gulped, and then nodded in agreement. "I see," said the geomancer. He looked to his side, then back at his master. "What was her name?"

The cloaked figure raised an eyebrow. "I beg your pardon?"

"Sorry," said Geo-Force. "I'm just wondering what her name was, or at least what she called herself; strictly out of curiosity?"

His master glared at him blankly, his eyebrow still raised. Then he calmed himself down, and thought to himself, his eyes narrowing, but this time in concentration rather than anger. He knew that it would be quite impolite to deny some sort of response to his subordinates perfectly legitimate question. But at the same time, he couldn't really tell the full truth either, for both the girl's actual birth name and her chosen hero name sounded so very similar that he was certain that the girl's birth name, or even a word with a different spelling that sounded exactly like it, would potentially trigger a memory in the geomancer that could completely overturn his control over said geomancer.

Then the cloaked figure brightened up as he thought of just the right answer to give that was technically the truth, but not so much as to potentially put his control over the geomancer at risk. "She called herself . . . Aftershock." He smiled under his cowl, for he knew from his own master's vigil upon the younger former geomancer that this very title was one that she'd originally considered using during her earliest efforts at using her powers for heroic purposes before later choosing to use the title that the Titans had come to know her by.

Geo-Force thought to himself as if considering the information. "I see," he eventually stated slowly. "An appropriate title."

"Indeed," said his master in a tone that masterfully hid the slowly rising sense of dread he was now feeling upon hearing a clear sense of lingering uncertainty and curiosity over the matter in his servant's tone. Clearly, the geomancer was not about to let the matter go that quickly just yet. "Anything more?"

Geo-Force stood to attention. "No master," he replied. "That will be all. And I shall keep an eye out on the Titans just like you say and let Cheshire keep watch over the captives."

"Very well then, good lad," said the cloaked figure, who then waved his hand, causing his end of the portal to go blank and dark. Geo-Force nodded to himself, and waved his own hand, causing the vortex to disappear entirely.

The geomancer nodded his head up and down as if in acknowledgment. "I'd best get to work then," he said to himself. Without another word, he summoned what looked like an eagle sized pteranodon-like creature made out of rocks and sand. Upon formation, the creature opened its eyes (which consisted of two cracks in the small rock that served as its head), revealing a yellow glow in both of them, and turned its head to look at its creator, who nodded, and then said, "Find the Titans, and report everything to me that you can without being seen by them." The construct nodded, flapped its literally sandy wings, and flew off into the sky to search for the targets its master had tasked it with finding. Upon sending off his newly summoned scout to find and watch the Titans, he summoned a flying rock, mounted it, and made his way back to the island where Titans Tower East was located. It was high time he went back to his hideout to regain his strength and thinks things through for his next attack.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, in the area where Geo-Force's master had been, the dark cloaked figure snarled irritably as he thought about how very clearly still curious his geomancer subordinate appeared to be in regard to the former geomancer. "He may yet find out the full truth about her," he growled to himself in a low whisper. "And once he founds out how he and that girl are connected, it could yet spell doom for this current plot."

"What did I miss?"

The cloaked figure's eyes narrowed at the sound of this voice, and with a low growl, he turned around to look behind him. Sure enough, as he'd suspected upon hearing the voice, none other than Vandal Savage was standing behind him. "I thought I told you to stand guard at the camp," he stated tensely.

Savage shrugged. "You did. But over time, I got bored, and I decided I'd check to see what you were up to; but not, for the record, without setting up a few security measures that I had left over from working directly with your superior. So fear not, will be fine where we are."

The cloaked figure raised his eyebrow in suspicion at first, then thought to himself, and snarled silently as he reluctantly decided to give Savage the benefit of the doubt just this once at the very least. He then turned away from Savage. "Well you didn't miss much," he then grumbled. "Aside from the fact that, through a very careless mistake on Geo-Force's part, he has managed to catch a direct, albeit distance, glimpse of the former geomancer girl. And now, in spite of my efforts, I have only delayed his potentially inevitable discovery of who she really is."

Savage thought to himself. "I presume such an event would be quite problematic," he then said.

"You presume?" the cloaked figure. "Oh there is no presuming to be done about it, it _would_ be quite the setback, no doubt about it."

Savage shrugged, much to the cloaked figure's chagrin, and then said, "Well that's just too bad. Perhaps I ought to ask just what his idiotic mistake was?"

The cloaked figure growled. "He forgot, in spite of being an explicit order about it, to have Steel City drained and blocked off from ground based water before the arrival of Aqualad and the Titans. As a result, since the Atlantean was still able to use his powers without having to rely on either water in the air or his own life force, he was able to easily fight off the earth-based assailants that Geo-Force summoned to take care of him and the former geomancer and intervene in Geo-Force's battle with the Titans proper, as well as allow Geo-Force to catch aforementioned glimpse of the girl."

Savage thought to himself, and then found himself smirking in delight as he thought of how he could get a good dig at his superior from hearing this information. "Well I guess you could have done well to give him a few reminders for that little task don't you think?"

"It's your fault I even needed to tell him to do that task at all; if it weren't for you, he could have easily done it himself without my even needing to tell him to do so," the cloaked figure replied.

Savage's smirk faded into a glare. "And what is _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Don't play dumb with me Savage," growled his superior. "You know perfectly well what I'm talking about." He turned to face the immortal caveman. "And really Savage, could you have really not been more specific about describing Aqualad to Geo-Force then just saying that he's an Atlantean?"

"Well I shouldn't have needed to!" Savage yelled. "We're talking about Atlantis! The city under the ocean! It's all self-explanatory!"

"Not for a Markovian it's not," the cloaked figure growled with a hint of derision in his tone. He then looked off towards the sun as if directing a glare directly at the country in question. "The mountains surrounding it may have kept them safe this long, but they have also kept the country's inhabitants sheltered from the outside world for too long. Virtually every single one of them apart from the royal family don't know the first thing about any land outside their own that's _above_ the ocean's surface, let alone beneath the ocean or outside the planet's atmosphere. And don't get me started on their knowledge of the years. There are some elderly people there that I've met personally who still think it's 1942."

Upon hearing this information, Savage found himself quite lost for words, his mouth gaping open in pure shock at the sheer stupidity of what he'd just heard about. Then he closed his mouth and thought to himself awkwardly, "And I didn't think it physically possible for such a level of stupidity to exist."

At the sight of how his subordinate was reacting to the information, the cloaked figure snorted, turned around to face away from him once more, and then said, "But needless to say, it doesn't really matter at this point anyway, since odds are high now that Geo-Force will discover the connection between him and that girl and in the process break free from our control over him entirely."

Upon hearing this, Savage's curiosity was aroused once more, and he spoke without thinking, "Perhaps you could explain just what the nature of this control you speak of is?"

At the sight of his master turning his cowled head and glaring at him, Savage mentally winced. "Forgive me for asking again," he said. "But I'm just curious. And I think, well, maybe if you tell me at least just this one little thing, then maybe that will help me be more willing to humble myself down around you."

The cloaked figure snarled briefly, and then paused and thought to himself. He sighed as he realized the logic in his subordinate's statement and reluctantly admitted that he had a point. "Very well then," he grumbled. "I'll let you entirely in the loop on this matter, if only to shut you up about it." He turned his entire body around to face the immortal caveman. "And while I'm at it, I might as well tell you just what the nature of the connection between the two geomancers is as well."

 **And just like that, another chapter is complete! Hoping you all enjoyed and leave a decent amount of feedback! And do feel free to comment on whatever you wish to and don't hesitate to ask questions if you have any! ^_^**

 **Coming up Next: Three days after the epic battle against Geo-Force at Steel City proper, tensions between Beast Boy and Terra erupt yet again when Terra decides to bring some very pressing matters to a not entirely well timed head.**


	9. Tensions Erupt

**Good day everybody! Here's to hoping you're ready for yet more Teen Titan-ic awesomeness, because here's a new chapter! In this chapter, things come an unpleasantly bad timed head between Beast Boy and Terra when the former geomancer picks a very unwise time to try to forcibly bring Beast Boy's focus to some very sensitive matters about their past history. Sound good? I certainly hope so! And that being said, here's me eagerly looking forward to your reading, enjoying, and reviewing!**

 **A/N: But first, just to cover my legal bases real fast, I do not own Teen Titans. And with that out of the way, onward with the story!**

 **Chapter 8:**

 **Tensions Erupt**

Three days later, Terra was sitting on a rock by herself on the banks of a river within the forest where she, Aqualad, and the Jump City Titans had set up camp. They had set up camp the previous evening after finally getting just about everything they could do for Steel City at the moment done. And now, at this particular moment, the five Titans, plus Aqualad, were now in the midst of a meeting of some sort in a large clearing a good few feet away from the former geomancer.

The past few days, while stressful at times, had also been quite fulfilling for Terra and the Titans. After all, they had managed to help out quite a lot of people, and they felt very proud and happy of what they'd managed to do. But at this moment in time, however, Terra was not entirely in the best of moods. In fact, she was feeling very tense right now over the way a certain green changeling had been behaving around her.

Terra's eyes narrowed into a venomous glare as she thought of how Beast Boy had behaved in her regard over the past few days. Ever since the battle against Geo-Force in Steel City proper, the shape shifter had spent very little time around her at all, and what little time he did spend with her was never longer than he deemed absolutely necessary as demanded by the circumstances. But whenever he wasn't spending what little time he did spend with her, he was always finding excuses to keep his distance from her.

Over the course of providing relief effort for the damaged city and its inhabitants, there had been plenty of perfectly reasonable and understandable reasons for him to not spend too much time with her, as he was often in the midst of taking care of some task or other that was legitimately of considerably higher importance than having idle chatter. And at least once or twice, in recent times following the relief effort, he had been very clearly seen by her in the midst of meetings with Aqualad and the rest of the Jump City Titans.

However, more often than not by this point, Beast Boy had often been either busy in a task that seemingly could be easily put aside for a later time or blatantly lied about being busy with something when he was clearly not in the midst of any activity whatsoever. This element in particular, was now causing Terra to strongly suspect that Beast Boy was now deliberately going out of his way to avoid her. And now that she thought about it, the fact that she'd now seen him spend an awfully large amount of time in Raven's company compared to the other Titans, or Aqualad, but especially compared to her, did not help to ease away her suspicions or improve her mood.

The former geomancer actually growled to herself as she remembered her most recent sighting of Beast Boy hanging around a little too close to the gray skinned sorceress for her own comfort. "He's _mine_ ," she snarled to herself in a low whisper.

She glared in the direction of the clearing where the green boy in question was gathered with the sorceress and their fellow Titans. "He said he was willing to forgive me," she thought to herself. "Yet why is he still blowing me off?" A silent snarl of gritted teeth then came on her face as she then thought to herself, "And how dare he give so much more attention to that statue skinned, demon eyed, witch? I'm the one he had a crush on, not her!"

Then she thought of another detail that she found herself getting even angrier over as she considered it to be a possible other reason behind the changeling's current behavior. "And just because I let Aqualad know all that stuff about my past before I ever told you about them and hung out with him so many times before I ever agreed to that first date, regardless of how disastrous it became, does not mean he has the right to spite me by rubbing his overly close friendship with that jealous hag in my face," she thought to herself bitterly.

And then she remembered how said 'hag' was very much in the same area as the shape shifter at that particular moment, and she snapped. Huffing and puffing in barely contained rage, Terra got up from the rock she'd been sitting on, turned to face the path leading to the clearing where the meeting was occurring, and started storming down that very path. "That's it, I don't care what excuses he tries to throw at me this time," she thought to herself. "He is going to talk with me today, whether he wants to or not!"

. . . . .

Meanwhile, in the clearing where the Titans were in the midst of their meeting, things weren't entirely going very well for the six official Titans anymore then things were going for Terra. Particularly since, for the most part, Aqualad himself was still worried sick about the rest of the Titans East members while Robin and his Titans were trying to assess the situation calmly so as to form a proper plan of attack and rescue. Needless to say, tensions were woefully high.

"I am telling you again," Aqualad shouted in an almost hysterical tone. "We have to go now!"

"And I am telling _you, again_ ," Robin growled back in a clearly tense tone of his own. "We can't just go barging onto your island without a plan."

"Oh that's easily remedied," Aqualad grumbled in an almost spiteful tone. "We storm the island, take out Geo-Force and anyone else who may or not may be there with him that isn't one of my friends, release my friends, take out Geo-Force for good. There, now we have a plan, plain and simple!"

"Thank you, General Eisenhower," Raven droned sarcastically.

"I'm serious!" Aqualad yelled.

"So are we," Robin groaned.

"Yeah man, Robin's right," Cyborg agreed. The Atlantean turned his head towards Cyborg with a glare on his face. "Look man," said Cyborg. "I want to save the other members of Titans East just as much as you do. But like Robin said, we need a plan; and by that, I mean a real, actually thought out with care, genuine plan. We can't just go storming in with the first half baked concept that comes to our minds."

"Oh come on!" Aqualad moaned. "Indiana Jones pulls that kind of thing all the time! And the Guardians of the Galaxy were able to get away with that kind of thing more than once!"

"I do not see how the beings that serve as a judicial council for the Green Lantern Corps serve as an appropriate comparison for this," said Starfire.

"Not _those_ Guardians of the Galaxy!" Aqualad groaned in a half irritated, half exhausted tone.

Starfire raised her eyebrow with a clear look of confusion on her face. "Then who were you talking about?" the Tamaranean asked.

Robin put his hand on his girlfriend's shoulder. "I'll explain later Star." He then looked back at the worried Atlantean. "Look Aqualad, I get it, I understand that you're worried about your friends. Heck, I'm just as worried about them as you are. But rushing on over to the Titans East Island with Geo-Force occupying it without a properly thought out idea on what to do won't do them any good. And it especially won't do them any good if it ends with you getting captured and the rest of us getting killed."

Aqualad sighed, knowing that Robin had a fair point, but not wanting to admit to it for fear of letting down his captive friends. "Ok, I guess you're right," he eventually conceded. "But we can't just leave them there with that monster."

"And we won't," said Beast Boy. "Trust me dude," he then continued with his hands stretched to his sides stretched to the sides as if indicating a win-win situation. "By the time we finally do rescue the other members of Titans East, all the time we're currently spending in coming up with a proper plan of rescue will be all the more worthwhile. Like I said three days ago; come Hell or high water, we will save the rest of Titans East."

Aqualad thought to himself, and then nodded to himself in agreement as he realized the sense in what Beast Boy was saying. "We still need to have a plan ready and initiated before the end of the week," he then stated, at this point just for the sake of formality then as a genuine comeback.

"And again," said Robin, still perfectly calm, "we will have them out before then. We've still got two full days after today, and as much as evidence might point against it, we are making progress. All I need to do is just discuss a couple extra matters between the rest of the team and I promise we'll have a plan ready for rescuing our friends and taking out Geo-Force."

Aqualad thought to himself once more, considering his overall leader's statement. "If you say so," he eventually settled on saying.

"Good," said Robin. He looked around at all the other Titans. "Alright team, at this time, the meeting is adjourned. Right now, I still need a little time to think things over. When I'm ready, I'll call you guys over for further discussion. Understood?"

"Understood," said all four of the other Jump City Titans.

"Perfect," Robin responded, clasping his hands together at the same time for good measure. "Dismissed."

At that moment, the videophone built into Cyborg's right arm started to go off, and the partially robotic teenage hero grimaced slightly at the poor timing. A sheepish half smile on his face at the sight of the looks on his friends' faces, he said, "Excuse me," got up from his seated position on the ground, and walked on over into the more heavily forested area behind him so as to allow for some privacy and to avoid further disrupting the atmosphere Robin currently needed.

As soon as Cyborg was at a sufficient distance so as for his current call to avoid further disruptions, Robin looked back at Aqualad and the other remaining Titans. "Once again," he then said. "Dismissed." In silent unanimous agreement, the five teens below age 18 got up from their seated positions on the ground and started moving off in different directions. Robin headed towards the more northern oriented side of the clearing so as to hole himself away at the campsite to think over the details left to be considered for the upcoming rescue mission. Starfire flew over towards the southern end so as to start her scouting shift that had been agreed upon before the meeting had begun. Raven also made her way towards the southward end of the clearing so as to give herself a chance to meditate. Beast Boy chose to make his way over towards the eastward side where Cyborg was positioned, hoping to perhaps gain a couple details that might be helpful for Robin from whatever conversation Cyborg was currently having with the unidentified caller. Aqualad, meanwhile, chose to go out the westward exit of the clearing to check on Terra.

The Atlantean had just turned around to start in that direction, however, when he saw none other than Terra herself enter the clearing through the westward entrance. "Oh hey there," said Aqualad.

Terra nodded politely towards the Atlantean. "Greetings to you to," she responded. Then she looked over towards Beast Boy, her eyes narrowing. "Mind if I speak to Beast Boy?"

A good few feet behind Aqualad, the shape shifter tensed up, his greatly enhanced sense of hearing having allowed him to overhear the entire exchange, and he silently willed Aqualad to say no.

"Not at all, go on right ahead."

Beast Boy mentally face palmed. "Darn you Aqualad," he thought to himself. He did _not_ want to talk to Terra at the current moment, _at all_. But sadly, it seemed that Aqualad was all too unaware of that fact.

At the sound of footsteps coming his way, Beast Boy crouched downwards as if about to turn into a bird and fly away. "Don't you dare! You are not weaseling your way out this time!"

Beast Boy winced again when he heard Terra shout this. With his eyes closed and his teeth gritted in an almost guilty grimace, he turned his head in Terra's direction. "Can this wait until later? Now's really not the best time . . ."

"That's the problem Beast Boy! No time is ever the best time for you anymore!" Terra shouted.

Beast Boy sighed heavily, turned his entire body around to face Terra, his eyes now open. "Look Terra, I get it, I know I've been distant lately; but please, can we at least save the other members of Titans East before we talk about this? Believe me, I know what you want to talk to me about, and I highly doubt it would be a good idea to let too much drama pop up while the rest of Titans East have their lives at stake. And if you can't wait till then, can we at least speak in private? The other Titans are right here around us within earshot."

"No," Terra growled bluntly. "You lost your shot at this being a private chat five hours ago! And screw the drama, you've put this off long enough! And besides, surely even you know that it will be much healthier for us and your team mates if we just get this out of the way right now instead of making it worse than it already has to be by bottling it up! Honestly Beast Boy, I thought that you were braver then this!"

"Yeah well, being brave doesn't mean you go looking for trouble!" Beast Boy snapped back, his eyes now hardening irritably. "And believe me, I know how to pick my battles, and I've had years of experience in doing exactly that!" He then pointed his finger at Terra and shouted, "And besides, contrary to what you may think, sometimes it's better to keep things bottled up! And believe me, I know that for a fact!"

"Oh a fact you say?" Terra hissed spitefully. "Well what could possibly happen that's so messed up that you would actually _want_ it to be kept bottled up?!"

Beast Boy's eyes, already hardened in anger, narrowed viciously. "Messed up? Oh you have no idea."

At that point, the little argument had attracted the attention of the other Titans, who were now all looking in the direction of the arguing shape shifter and former geomancer. Robin had his right eyebrow raised in annoyance, and was glaring at the two. Starfire had a very painfully obvious look of uncertainty and despair on her face at the sight of her two angry friends. Raven had a mixture of annoyance and worry on her own face, which was quite surprising considering how she usually reacted to interruptions to her meditation. Aqualad had what looked like a sheepish and guilty grimace, clearly now regretting giving Terra the all clear to talk to Beast Boy at the moment. Cyborg, meanwhile, was directing a look of awkward embarrassment at serving as a witness to what he was certain would not be a pretty spectacle. Placing one hand directly to the side of his videophone screen in an effort to reduce the metaphorical damage, he leaned closer to the screen and said, "I'm sorry, could you say that again?"

Terra's eyes narrowed, now even angrier then she was before. "Well maybe I _would_ have some idea if you'd just talk about it! Honestly BB, I thought you were braver then this! You fight against monsters and supervillains that are a million times scarier, and yet you're too much of a coward to open up on a few secrets?! Are you serious?!"

"Ha! Ha-ha! Ha!" Beast Boy laughed sarcastically with a high pitched, yet completely humorless, tone with his eyes directed towards the sky before looking directly back at Terra. "Are you hearing yourself right now?" the changeling then asked in an incredulous tone. "Seriously, do you even know what you just said? Last I recall, you were so terrified out of your wits three years ago about anyone figuring out about how you were at the time secretly unable to control your powers that you were practically breathing fire at me after I was circumstantially framed for trumpeting my mouth off about it to Robin! Yet _you're_ the one calling me a coward right now for being unwilling to give away a few secrets? Oh that is _so_ funny!" As he said the last bit, a very obviously angry look came on his face, complete with every single one his nightmarishly pointy teeth bared in a silent feral snarl.

Terra growled, tossed her hair over her shoulder, and then glared back at the green changeling. "Look the point is, if you can take out savage monsters and twisted psychopaths without a sweat, you should be just as brave about opening up about yourself! And on that same tangent, it shouldn't be that hard for you to devote even a few seconds of your time to have a simple chat with me! And it's not like you aren't capable of doing exactly that for all your other friends here apart from me! Heck, you spent more quality time with that antisocial witch just this morning alone then you ever have with me for the last three days!"

"This conversation is over," Beast Boy snapped bluntly, turning around to walk away, clearly angered even further at the very personal jab the former geomancer had just made at him.

"The Hell it is Grinch!" Terra shouted at the shape shifter's retreating back.

Beast Boy came to a halt so suddenly that it was if he'd been turned to stone, even tensing up with his ears pointing upwards as straight as possible. He whipped his head around to face the former geomancer once more, an absolutely livid look of fury on his face. "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!" he roared.

"You heard me!" Terra shouted back. "A Grinch! A disgusting, ugly, cowardly Grinch!"

For what seemed like an eternity, time seemed to stand still, not a single person present daring to so much as breathe. The tension could have been sliced up with a knife. Then Beast Boy's wide eyed mixture of shock and anger morphed into a look of pure, unadulterated, primal rage mixed with absolute burning hate, and he turned his entire body around to face Terra. "That's it!" he shouted. "This is war!"

At that point, Cyborg, having gotten annoyed at the noise once again making things difficult for his call, turned his head to face the two borderline battle-ready teens and yelled, "Could you quiet down!? I'm trying to have a little talk here!"

"STAY OUT OF THIS!" Beast Boy roared, his head whipping around to stare at Cyborg with a savage look of fury on his face. Cyborg reared back, horrified and stunned speechless at the sheer savagery of Beast Boy's voice tone and facial expression. Clearly, this situation was getting even worse then he'd thought.

Robin, however, seemingly quite oblivious to how dangerously angry Beast Boy was getting, stormed up towards him and Terra. "That's enough Beast Boy!" he yelled. "We don't have time for this craziness . . ."

Within the blink of an eye, the boy wonder was sent flying backward by a shockingly strong right hook to the face from Beast Boy, and he bounced on the ground thrice before coming to a screeching halt mere inches away from getting his head pounded against the base of a tree.

Starfire, upon seeing what had just happened to her boyfriend, prepared herself as if about to zoom down towards Beast Boy. But then Beast Boy rapidly turned his head to his left and upwards towards Starfire before she even moved an inch away from her current position, and unleashed a savage inarticulate roar of rage that left the Tamaranean terrified and lifting up her hands in surrender with a fearful look on her face.

Beast Boy let out another angry growl, and then turned his head to face Terra once again, a predatory glare in his eyes and his teeth gritted in a feral snarl. Terra, meanwhile, still had an angry glare on her face and didn't seem at all affected by the fury and savagery that Beast Boy had just displayed in front of her.

Raven, meanwhile, was still hovering in her cross-legged position that she'd been in before her meditation got interrupted by the now very fierce squabble going on before her. But now, instead of the half annoyed and half worried look that she'd had before, her face was now almost white with horror as she witnessed both the savagery Beast Boy had displayed and noticed two major details about him that only went to show just how very serious the situation was now becoming.

The first such detail, which just about anyone could see from getting a good look at the shape shifter's face at the current time, was that his naturally emerald green eyes had now taken on a feral cat-like yellow tone. The fact that his eyes had changed color wasn't too big of a detail in and of itself, since his eyes naturally changed whenever he transformed so that the eyes would match up with the rest of the animal's natural form. However, the fact that they were now yellow while he was still in human form was worrisome because of how it was an appropriately ominous warning sign of him being on the verge of taking on one form in particular that was the absolute last thing that any of them wanted him to assume at this particular moment.

As if to further cement the certainty of what form he was on the verge of taking, Raven could also see another powerful warning sign standing right behind Beast Boy, a warning sign that only she could see. Standing right behind the shape shifter, with the exact same glare of cold bestial fury on its face, was a translucent, almost ghost-like, illusionary full body vision of the Beast. This was especially worrisome for Raven to see, for she knew that usually when Beast Boy transformed, regardless of what form he would take, he would usually just transform in the blink of an eye. However, on some rare occasions, when it came to the Beast, he was capable of slowly transforming on the interior and mental scape, before then seemingly changing in outward appearance. And these specific instances were always able to be detected by Raven whenever she saw the illusionary form of the Beast standing nearby Beast Boy or peeking out from the changeling's back.

And specifically because of the Beast's now increasingly high risk of surfacing, she didn't dare to say a word; for if she were to try to intervene, regardless of whose behalf she tried to intervene for, Terra would very likely shout at her to stay out of her business or tell her off for taking Beast Boy's side. And if either of those two options happened, then the Beast would instantly surface right then and there. After all, as had been very painfully proven in past experience, the one thing that was guaranteed to allow the Beast to seize control and resurface regardless of whether or not Beast Boy was willing was any threat of any form against Raven. And so, she stayed silent, for an appearance of the Beast was the absolute last thing that any of them needed at this particular moment.

Meanwhile, as this was happening, Cyborg, realizing that things were about to get ugly, quickly turned back to the screen of his video phone. "I'm sorry," he whispered to the people on the screen. "Can I call you back?"

And so, at that particular moment, while the other Titans found themselves looking on with looks that ranged from fear, to awkward embarrassment, and even to despair, Beast Boy and Terra remained in their current standing positions in a tense standoff, glaring furiously at each other, with Beast Boy snarling and slavering in rage while Terra had her mouth set in a firm thin frowning line that showed no teeth, her golden hair blowing slowly in the wind in a clear visual showing of how much relatively calmer she was currently feeling compared to the enraged green shape shifter that she'd originally thought for certain would always be her true friend, and possibly more.

For a few seconds more, the two angry teens stared each other down. Then Beast Boy tensed himself up, clenched his fists, and reared his head upwards and back with a look of just barely contained rage on his face. Behind him, Raven could see the transparent copy of the Beast taking the exact same pose and facial expression. Then Beast Boy spoke, and while his voice sounded perfectly normal to Terra, Aqualad, and the majority of the other Jump City Titans, Raven heard his voice as well as that of the Beast meld together to form an almost demonic animalistic voice; for at the same time that Beast Boy himself was speaking, Raven could see the Beast's mouth moving in sync with the shape shifters and hear the creature speaking the exact same words at the exact same time. "I tried to let this conversation have a properly appropriate chance to be made," said the changeling. "I truly did. But it seems that you have your mind made up on it being sooner than it should, so I guess we might as well get this over with now."

"Finally, something we agree on today," said Terra.

Beast Boy's yellow eyes narrowed, the eyes of the illusionary Beast doing the same. "We'd agree on far more these days if you'd just have the patience to wait till a more appropriate time to stage incidents like these!"

"That's the point!" Terra howled. "There's never an appropriate time anymore!"

"Well there would have been one," snarled Beast Boy. "Particularly if you'd waited till _after_ we saved the rest of Titans East! Honestly Terra, do you really think that such frivolous matters as how much time I've spent with you lately is all that important when there are other people, who just happen to be friends of mine I might add, whose lives are at stake!?"

"Clearly, your definition of frivolous and my definition have a world of difference between them," Terra growled spitefully.

"Perhaps you can't hear me?" Beast Boy snarled. "At this very moment, four of my honorary team mates, and good friends of me and the other Titans as a whole, are being held prisoner! And if we don't have them rescued and out of the hands of the dastardly villain that's captured them within the next two days, they could _die_! Or worse! So _forgive_ me for not really being all that keen on chatting idly with you over less important stuff!"

"Well that certainly hasn't stopped you from having idle chats with that witch sitting not too far away from us right now!" Terra snapped, her finger pointing at Raven in an almost accusatory fashion.

Beast Boy snarled, and tensed up even further, with the Beast now looking especially pissed off and raring to go for a fight. "I have done no such thing, and you know it!"

"Oh really?" said Terra. "You could have fooled me! Over the past few days alone, I've seen you and that hag in very close proximity with each other, chatting away, and similarly canoodling away at times that I know for certain that you could have either been taking part in your quote on quote more important things or, what's really more important right now, talking to me!"

Beast Boy growled. "For your information, we were not 'canoodling' as you put it; rather, we were hard at work in discussing ideas on how to rescue the rest of Titans East, as well as similarly important matters. Never did we, at any point whatsoever over these past three days, spent overly large amounts of time making any conversation over matters that weren't of any immediate importance, thank you very much! And if you had _my_ sense of hearing, you would have actually _heard_ what we said and known this for certain instead of jumping to inane conclusions like a jealous stalker!"

Terra visibly tensed up at the insult, but Beast Boy pointed his right finger at her to keep her from interrupting and shouted, "And even if we had been talking about anything that was of high importance for the current mission, she's still a very good friend of mine, and one that I have a far higher level of trust towards right now then I currently have for you!"

Terra scowled. "Oh sure," she growled. "Go ahead and trust her more than me, even though she's spent so much time insulting you, physically abusing you, hating your guts, and likewise treating you like garbage!"

"My relationship with Raven has never been that extreme!" Beast Boy shouted. "You are blowing it completely out of proportion!" He pointed at Terra again. "And for the record, things have actually improved pretty well between us if I do say so myself, and we're actually pretty good friends now!"

Terra rolled her eyes in mocking disbelief. "Oh sure," she droned. "Because of course it just happened to occur while I wasn't around to witness it, and the fact that I didn't see it happen doesn't necessarily guarantee that it didn't happen."

"Well of course you wouldn't have seen it happen rock head! You were a freaking statue at the time!"

This comment gave Terra serious pause, and she found herself rendered quite speechless as she realized that the shape shifter actually had a pretty good point there. Beast Boy smirked, a smug wolf-like grin coming onto the face of the illusionary Beast as well. The changeling then lifted up his finger, now clearly enjoying his newfound advantage. "They always say to look before you leap," he purred smugly.

Terra glared once more, pointed her own finger at Beast Boy, and then said, "Well even so, that still doesn't change the fact that you've spent way too much time with her these days then you have with me!"

Beast Boy's smug look narrowed back into an angry glare all over again. "Oh, so you're saying that I can't spend time with my friends anymore? Since when has _that_ been a crime?!"

Terra mentally face palmed. "Well ok, it isn't a crime to spend time with your friends. . ."

"Then why is it such a big deal that I am currently spending so much time with Raven then I am with you?!" Beast Boy roared. "She's my friend! And right now, she's a friend that I trust way more than you!" He pointed at Terra once more. "And like I said, right now, I've got more important things to worry about, namely the rescue of Aqualad's direct fellow team mates, then such petty things as discussing past history with you!"

Terra glared at Beast Boy once more. "So that's how it's going to be then? You're just gonna dismiss me as some petty minor concern? Even after everything we once had together as friends? After how you used to feel for me?"

Aqualad, Robin, Starfire, Raven, and Cyborg all gaped incredulously at Terra. Then the Boy Wonder mentally face palmed. "Seriously?" he thought to himself in irritation. " _That's_ what you're concerned about right now?"

Beast Boy visibly tensed up upon hearing this, his fists clenching. The illusionary Beast took on the same position and facial expression, the claws on its hands extending in time with Beast Boy's clenching his fists. "What. Does. That. Have. To. Do. With. This?!"

"It's got everything to do with this conversation!" Terra shouted back.

"How!?" Beast Boy snapped.

"Don't play dumb with me!" Terra yelled. "You know perfectly well how this is relevant!"

"Hate to break it to you," Beast Boy snarled, not sounding sorry at all. "But no I do not see how this has anything to do with what this argument!"

Terra glared, folder her arms across her chest, and then said, "Fine. You want to play the obfuscating stupidity card with me? Fine then, I'll humor you." She turned her head to direct an accusatory glare towards Raven, a clear 'this is your fault' look on the face of the blonde former geomancer. Then she turned her head to face Beast Boy once more. "Two years ago, when I was an active member of your team; heck, even a good few months before then; you were head over heels for me. In fact, you cared about me so much, that even after both being shown the truth about how I was, at the time, working for Slade, and even after I tried to kill you and nearly _succeeded_ , you still forgave me! Heck, you even tried to go after me while I was trying to just leave my old life as a Titan behind and be an ordinary civilian girl at Murakami High School! Yet here we are now, in spite of all that, with you not spending so much as a second showing any concern or even any emotion or similar sign of acknowledgement whatsoever towards me and letting your friends, but especially that witch, hog all your attention!"

For a brief moment, Beast Boy just gaped uncomprehendingly at Terra in shock, clearly stunned speechless at the rant that Terra had just slammed him with. But then understanding came into his eyes as the words finally clicked into his mind, and his narrow eyed glare returned all over again. " _That's_ what this is about?" he then growled. "All this, because of some ill-timed and very poorly founded case of petty jealousy?"

Terra glared, then thought to herself, and then looked back at Beast Boy. "Well now that you put it that way," she then said. "I guess maybe so."

Beast Boy snarled, now looking even angrier then he already had. "Well in that case, the fact that I even fell for you at all in the first place makes me an even bigger idiot then my friends and everyone else already think I am! After all, who in their right mind would want to be romantically linked with a shallow, heartless, unfeeling monster such as you?!"

"You're calling _me_ a monster?!" Terra shouted, scandalized by what she'd just heard Beast Boy say to her. She then pointed at Raven. "She's the _real_ monster here!"

"For your information," Beast Boy growled, now seemingly having an even harder time then before in holding the Beast back, "I'm just as much of a monster as Raven is from the right perspective." He pointed at Terra once more. "But regardless of that, I'm quite simply ashamed and disgusted that you truly think that our old history together is a more important thing for me to worry about then the lives of my friends, and that you'd much rather I spend every waking hour with you and not even leave a second available for my own friends that I've known for far longer than you, and for that matter trust a whole lot more at the current moment! After all, I may not have had the kind of relationship with them that I once thought I had with you, but they at least never consciously and willingly betrayed me!"

"You said you were willing to put that behind you and forgive me!" Terra shouted.

"Yes I did!" Beast Boy yelled. "With time! And right now, I still need time! Heck, considering how your desire for me to forgive you in an even shorter amount of time then I need has just caused you to act, you've just now made the waiting time even longer!"

"Well why should I wait!?" Terra yelled petulantly, seemingly not even noticing or caring how very shallow and bratty she was now making herself sound. "Why can't things just work out the way they always do in the old childhood stories?! It's not fair!"

"It's _LIFE_!" Beast Boy roared. "It wasn't built to be fair!" He stomped his left foot down, snorting in rage. "Life isn't a fairy tale Terra! And it sure as Hell isn't a cartoon musical either where you can just make a wish, sing a few songs, and dance a few numbers, and all your dreams will inexplicably come true! So let it go!" Snarling angrily, Beast Boy then turned his back to Terra. "I am done with this," he growled.

Terra glared at Beast Boy, mentally snarling in fury. She clenched her fists, stomped her right foot, and lifted her head up in a mixture of anger and haughtiness. "So you're just gonna turn your back on me huh?" she growled. "Fine! Go ahead! See what I care! Heck, I'll bet this is more than just trying to be a good friend to all your pals and team mates! You've already moved on from me in romantic aspects haven't you!?"

Beast Boy visibly tensed up, the illusionary Beast that Raven could still see nearby doing the same. "This has nothing to do with whether or not I'm in love with anyone else you little . . ."

"Just admit it!" Terra snapped, anger now very heavily clouding her judgment. "You've already found some other girl to replace me with and shower in affections! You're already in love with someone else and sold your heart to her just as quickly as you did with me! Let me guess, it's that witch isn't it?!"

Beast Boy leaned forward and downwards as if tensing himself up, snarling ominously in rage. "You leave Raven out of this!" Beast Boy growled.

"I should have known!" Terra howled. "I should have guessed that she'd be the one to get you to forget all about me and dismiss me so quickly as no longer suitable for your romantic needs! Or better yet, maybe I should have just stuck around and made sure that she actually _had_ drowned in that stupid mud three years ago!"

"Don't push me Terra!" Beast Boy snarled, now clearly on the verge of snapping in some form or other.

"Why did I even bother to give you a chance?!" Terra spat. "Why did I even the consider the possibility of you deserving my time when you're just a shallow minded animal who views love as a toy, switches his way from one girl to another like a rooster with hens, and has a heart that changes on a whim as swiftly as the Autumn sky!"

Terra never saw the punch coming, and Beast Boy's right fist pounded into her face seemingly out of nowhere with such force that she was catapulted backwards into the air, only coming to a stop when her head crashed painfully against a tree and she landed even more painfully on the ground on her back. Groaning and wincing in pain, Terra managed to get herself back on her feet and look over towards Beast Boy, only for her eyes to widen in horror at the sight of the changeling still standing in the exact position he'd been at before she'd gotten punched with his fists still clenched and his face contorted in an expression of such beastly fury that the former geomancer couldn't help but feel terrified that he was about to kill her.

Snarling and growling irritably, Beast Boy managed to spit out, "YOU REALLY THINK THAT LOW OF ME?! I THOUGHT YOU WERE BETTER THEN THAT TERRA!"

"Beast Boy," Terra gasped, lifting her hands up in surrender. "Please, just calm down, I am so sorry . . ."

"NO YOU'RE NOT!" Beast Boy roared. "YOU MEANT EVERY WORD! AND DON'T TRY TO LIE AND SAY THAT YOU DIDN'T! WE BOTH KNOW IT'S TRUE!"

Terra winced, Beast Boy's words stabbing deep into her like a poisoned sword. "Beast Boy please," she whimpered, now mentally cursing herself for how deep she'd dug into this situation and desperate to make things right. "Just please let me have a chance to make things right, I'm truly sorry, I mean it."

"GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON WHY I SHOULD BELIEVE THAT!" Beast Boy roared, his anger not having abated by even the slightest bit.

Terra gulped, now on the verge of tears, and she then quietly whispered, "Because somewhere in there, you still love me."

Dead silence hung in the air after Terra said this, with Aqualad and the other Jump City Titans just watching intently with varying expressions on their faces as they tried to decide what to do and wondered about what would happen next, and Terra looking intently at Beast Boy with a mixture of anticipation and fear as the shape shifter in question just stared blankly at her with his right eyebrow raised and his mouth set in an emotionless frown. The silence dragged on, with the former geomancer becoming increasingly nervous about why Beast Boy still hadn't responded. Before long, Aqualad, Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg began to feel very worried about how the situation would unfold at this point. Even Raven looked visibly nervous.

Eventually, Terra couldn't take it anymore, and she almost shouted in a tone that was just as much filled with despair as it was with fear, "Beast Boy please, say something! Anything!"

For what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was just one minute more, Beast Boy continued to stare blankly at Terra with his eyebrow raised and mouth set in that poker faced frown. Then his eyes narrowed, his eyebrow lowered, and he stated bluntly, "Do I?"

Terra gaped in shock and despair at Beast Boy, speechless at what he'd just said. "Wh. . . what do you mean? You do . . . or at least you did. I'm sure of it."

Beast Boy seemed to think to himself. "I thought I did back then," he then admitted out loud. "Now I'm not so sure." He then looked directly back at Terra, his now no longer yellow eyes narrowing once more. "In fact, I haven't been really all that sure about whether or not I actually loved you back then for a long time now. And I'm definitely uncertain right now whether or not I actually still love you now, assuming I ever did in that way."

Terra silently gasped, the cold and calm tone that Beast Boy was now currently speaking to her in hurting her far more than all his ill-tempered roaring, or even his punch from mere minutes ago, had ever come close to doing. "Don't say that Beast Boy," she then said, now clearly on the verge of tears. "You can't say things like that. You can't! Not to me! You've always had faith in me. Always!"

Beast Boy growled curtly. "You said it best yourself when I was following you around at that school. Things change. People change."

Terra felt her heart plummet even further upon hearing the very same words she'd used during one of the last times she'd encountered Beast Boy before the fateful beach encounter from just four to five days prior to the current moment painfully reflected right back at her. Desperate to get through to Beast Boy and prevent herself from completely losing herself right then and there, she then said, "It doesn't work like that Beast Boy! People don't just change like this in just two or three days!"

"IT'S BEEN FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS!" Beast Boy roared. "AND I'VE HAD THREE WHOLE YEARS BEFORE THAT DAY AT MURAKAMI HIGH TO THINK EVEN FURTHER ON THIS MATTER! I'VE HAD _PLENTY_ OF TIME TO CHANGE TERRA, PLENTY OF TIME!"

The changeling then took a deep breath, exhaled heavily, and then directed a half angry and half pitiful glare towards the former geomancer. "And in all that time, I've come to realize, and only now am I willing to openly admit it, but maybe, just maybe, what I felt for you back then wasn't even actual love. Maybe, just maybe, it was little more than a simple schoolyard crush."

The look on Terra's face said it all. "But, you were so determined to get me to admit that you were telling the truth when you were following me around at school, and you were so happy when I finally confirmed it back at the beach the other day. . ."

"Well for the first situation," said Beast Boy. "Let's just say that there was a small part of me at the time that was still hoping that what I'd felt for you wasn't just a simple schoolyard crush and that something more could be formed between us. As for the second situation. . . well that was before I learned that you'd been lying to me about losing your memory about me and the other Titans."

Beast Boy then sighed, hung his head, and then looked back up at Terra, a facial expression that was still angry, but at this point also tired, now on his face. "Look Terra, we had a little fun back in those other days, but these aren't those days. Maybe I did once love you; maybe I didn't. Maybe I'm in love with someone else now; maybe I'm not. Maybe I know what love is; maybe I don't. But regardless of my status for either of these, now's not the time for me to answer. I need time; and not just to forgive you and let our friendship reach the level it used to be at before the betrayal. I've dealt with a lot of crap over the last few months and years that have followed your betrayal and petrification. Hell, in the years that occurred before we ever even met you, I'd already gone through a lot. And all that, combined with some very serious events from the previous month alone, has given me a lot to think about. And believe me, with all the stuff I have to deal with right now, I'm not kidding when I say that I need time. And I'm sorry to say this Terra, but you're just gonna have to wait. You, me, and anyone else who may or may not be involved deserves better than a rushed and forced decision. And don't say a word about my usual recklessness at jumping to decisions. When it really matters, I am not incapable of thinking things through. And when I do make my decision on this matter you're so insistent on bringing up, trust me, it will be very well thought out, and be made with the absolute highest sincerity and honesty. For whatever you may think about it, or whatever your own heart may be like, my heart, is nothing like, an Autumn sky."

Beast Boy hung his head. "And forgive me for finishing on this note I'm about to end on, but at the current moment, I really, really, really do need time. Because I've already got enough on my plate right now as it is; and the last thing I need is to have yet another piece of drama to sort through. In fact, right now, as you appear to have conveniently deleted from your own mind to the point that I'm now reminding you for the 4th time in a row, the remaining members of Titans East, who happen to be both Aqualad's team mates, _and_ my friends, are being held captive and are also currently at risk of potentially dying or worse. So forgive me for not having you or whether or not I have or ever even had romantic feelings for you, be the first thing on my mind 24-7. Because unlike you, I actually want all of us to walk out of this mess alive and free."

The changeling lifted his head back up, his tired emerald eyes now staring once more into Terra's broken and sad blue ones. "And if you truly cared at all about my happiness and wellbeing, or was anywhere near as good of a friend as I once thought you were, or loved me at all in the way I myself once thought I felt for you, then you of all people would know why I have to wait. You of all people would recognize how important it is for me to make sure my friends are safe and sound before worrying about my own personal matters. You of all people, would understand how important my friends are to me and why I have no other choice but to make you wait for an answer."

The shape shifter hung his head once more, sighing heavily. Terra gulped, her eyes now even closer to tears than ever. "Beast Boy, please," Terra began.

"You're not the Terra I knew," Beast Boy stated, his head still staring down towards the ground and his feet. "You're not my friend."

And with those final emotionally shattering words uttered, Beast Boy took a deep breath, silently transformed into a pteranodon, spread his wings, and looked upwards towards the sky before then flapping his wings, jumping up from the ground and slowly hovering upward before then flying in the direction immediately opposite Starfire as he flew off into the distance over the forest towards the clearing where the Titans had set up camp, a low keening screech reverberating from his throat as he went. For what seemed like an eternity Aqualad and Beast Boy's fellow members of the founding branch of the Titans stared into the sky after him. Then they all looked towards Terra; and found their hearts sinking with guilt, sadness, and shame upon seeing the state she was now in.

The former geomancer was just standing still in the same area she'd been positioned in when Beast Boy had taken off and given her his powerful reason-you-suck speech. And at this particular moment, she had her arms hanging limply by her side, and she was staring upwards towards the sky as tears started streaming freely from her eyes and down her face, her mouth quivering as well as if on the verge of letting out despairing howls.

In that instant, Starfire gently came to a landing and walked over to Terra. Raven even got up from her meditating position and walked over towards the blonde as well. The two Jump City Titan girls walked straight up to Terra, the Tamaranean from Terra's left, and the Azarathian from Terra's right, and placed a hand on her shoulders. "Are you ok?" Starfire asked in concern.

Terra sniffled, closed her eyes, and shook her head side to side. "No," she responded.

Even though the response had been expected, it was still disheartening all the same. "Do you want to talk?" Raven asked. "Because we're willing to talk things out if you think it will help you feel better."

"No thanks," said Terra. She looked over at the sorceress, mentally wincing at how she'd been railing against her spending so much time with Beast Boy and calling her a witch multiple times in a row. "I appreciate the concern Raven. Really I do. But right now, I just need some time on my own to think."

"I'm not sure if that's a good . . ." Robin began before he felt a metallic hand come onto his own shoulder. The Boy Wonder looked to his left in time to see none other than Cyborg, who had somehow managed to silently make his way over to his current position from the area where'd earlier been attempting to take care of his phone call.

"Let her do it Rob," said Cy. "She really could use the time alone."

Terra sniffled, a half sad, and half grateful look directed towards the half robot. Raven and Starfire briefly looked over at the two Jump City Titan boys present, then thought to themselves, and then nodded in agreement before looking back at Terra.

"If you say so friend," Starfire said before lifting her hand from Terra's left shoulder and hovering backwards to give the former geomancer some space.

Raven nodded her head up and down, looked Terra in the eyes, and then said, "Just know that we're still hear if you need us later." The sorceress turned around and walked slowly away in Starfire's direction, removing her own hand from Terra's right shoulder in the process.

Terra nodded, looked over at all four of the still present Jump City Titans, as well as Aqualad, and then sniffled. "Thanks guys," said the former geomancer. "I'll be back later I guess." Then she turned around, paused for a brief second, and started slowly walking out of the clearing back the way she'd come. As she walked further and further down the path and further and further away from the clearing, she showed absolutely no external sign of her rapidly crumbling inner peace and rapidly intensifying sadness. She was not about to let the rest of the Titans feel even guiltier then they already had her be by seeing her break down.

After what seemed like hours to the deeply saddened former geomancer, Terra made it all the way back to the very same river bank she'd been sitting by before storming over the clearing to give Beast Boy a piece of her mind. Upon reaching the 'entryway' to this area, she briefly came to a stop. Then she took a deep breath, exhaled, and walked straight over to the very same large rock she'd been sitting on during the time she'd been in this area before. As she sat there on that rock, staring towards the river just like she'd done earlier that afternoon, she felt her earlier outward façade of stoic acceptance rapidly wavering as she felt tears continue to trickle down her face. Before long, she found herself visibly shaking in her efforts to successfully muzzle away the inner sadness that her mouth was even now struggling to unleash.

Her strength only continued to waver when she heard the sound of cawing crows and hooting owls. She lifted her head, her face visibly showing signs of being on the verge of losing it as she looked around desperately for any visible signs of the birds she was now hearing. While she couldn't see a single crow or owl, she kept hearing the sound of their cawing and hooting as clear as day. And at that particular moment, she couldn't help but feel as if the birds were laughing at her.

Desperate to avoid losing composure and will the seemingly mocking calls of the crows and owls from her head, she looked back down towards the river, only for her strength to further waver when the water seemingly intensified slightly in its flow and she got a clear look at the pebbles on the riverbed. And in that instant, she could almost swear that she could hear the very same tranquilly furious words Beast Boy had spoken to her not too long ago within the trickling of the water. "You're not the Terra I knew," the water seemed to say in a hauntingly realistic impression of Beast Boy's own voice. "You're not my friend."

In that moment, Terra completely lost it. With a heart wrenching wail of sorrow, she leaned her head down further, placed her hands up to her face, and let all her bottled up sadness come pouring from her in the form of waterfalls bursting from her eyes and despairing whimpering sobs spouting from her mouth. And for what seemed like an eternity in her mind, Terra continued to cry and weep over what she'd now done, cursing herself and her temper for pushing away the boy that she'd been so certain that she loved and was loved by in return, and in the process alienating several of her old friends, dismissing several potential future friends she'd never even met yet as unimportant when they were potentially in dire peril, and at this point likely almost completely destroying what little she'd managed to restore in regard to a friendship she'd had with the one person that she'd thought would always support her and be her friend. And in the midst of all these thoughts, she found herself bitterly wishing that she could have just spent the entire half hour or whatever amount of time had passed just sitting at this spot by the river, and that she'd never gone to that stupid clearing. For at that moment, she would have preferred to have remained with the suspicion filled anger at being seemingly ignored then be forced to endure this cold and brutal heartbreak that had now been so cruelly forced into its place.

 **And just like that, another new chapter done! Once again, here's me hoping that you enjoyed this bit of work and that you leave a respectable amount of feedback! And on that note, feel free to comment on whatever elements you wish. Again, hope you enjoyed!**

 **Coming up next: In the immediate aftermath following Beast Boy and Terra's very unpleasant spectacle, Robin steps up the plate to try to help set things right with the resident shape shifter, and in the process, ends up learning a few additional details as to why Terra's presence is making things slightly difficult for Beast Boy.**


	10. Matters of the Heart

**Well, here we are everyone! We have, a new chapter! In this chapter, in the aftermath of Terra and Beast Boy's big time blowout argument, the rest of the Titans decide to get straight to work on damage control so as to help cheer their friends up as soon as possible. And in the process, Robin ends up lucky enough to both bring about some much needed improvements in his friendship with Beast boy as well as learn an interesting detail regarding Beast Boy's current dilemma regarding Terra. That being said, here's to hoping you enjoy this chapter and leave a healthy amount of feedback (BUT NO FLAMES YOU HEAR ME!?).**

 **A/N: But first, just to make things clear, I do not own Teen Titans. Kay? Alright then. Onward with the story!**

 **Chapter 9:**

 **Matters of the Heart**

Meanwhile, back in the clearing where the entire unpleasant spectacle had unfolded, Aqualad and the other Jump City Titans remained where they were, too saddened and guilt driven to move or even say a single word. Starfire clearly looked depressed and saddened over just how badly things had fallen apart between her two friends. Cyborg looked guilty and embarrassed over his serving as a witness to the unpleasant spectacle that had probably been serious Hell for his younger brother from another mother to undergo, as well as for potentially making it worse by yelling at him to quiet down at that one particular moment. Raven looked both saddened and guilty at having not been able to do anything to mediate without running the risk of making things worse; and was also feeling even guiltier and more embarrassed about how her demonic side had been actively cheering Beast Boy on in his rage and laughing mockingly at Terra over the course of the aftermath that had befallen her. Robin, on the other hand, was feeling both disappointed at how the spectacle had potentially placed a significant setback upon their work on forming up a proper plan for rescuing the rest of Titans East as well as guilty about both not being able to do anything to make things better as well as for potentially having exacerbated the situation. At the same time, the Boy Wonder even found himself mentally wincing in sympathy for Terra when he remembered the punch that Beast Boy had slugged her with. Having ended up on the receiving end of one very similar such punch beforehand, he now knew very painfully firsthand how very surprisingly powerful the changeling's punches could be in human form when he was angry enough.

Aqualad, however, felt the worst about this whole mess. He was hanging his head, feeling both ashamed and guilty over having both practically been responsible for the whole unpleasant spectacle unfolding in the first place as well as for not having been able to do anything to stop it. And at the same time, he had, in his own way, gone through a situation of his own that had allowed for him to undergo an experience that was probably none too different from the emotional turmoil that he was certain that the blonde former geomancer was currently going through, and the thought of that particular detail made him feel even guiltier.

Eventually, Raven broke the silence by saying, "Well that just sucked." And she said it in her usual deadpan serious tone.

"Yeah, thank you Captain Obvious," Robin grumbled. He then pinched the bridge of his nose, closed his eyes, and sighed heavily before shaking his head side to side. "This is insane."

"What do we do now Robin?" Starfire asked.

Robin hung his head and sighed. "I wish I knew Star. I wish I knew."

"Well whatever we do, it had better be done fast," said Cyborg. "We all know that the fate of Titans East depends heavily on us getting our act together."

"Yeah, no sh. . ." Robin began before awkwardly pausing as he remembered that Starfire was standing right next to him. "Kidding. No kidding." Starfire raised her eyebrow briefly at Robin's change of wording, but decided not to press the issue.

"I'd say it's best we try to talk things out with them as soon as possible," said Raven. "I know that Beast Boy is likely still angry at the current moment. But knowing him, once his anger has sufficiently waned away, he'll be feeling somewhat just as guilty as Terra's probably feeling, and he'll need someone to be there to cheer him up, the sooner the better."

Robin thought to himself. "Fair point," he said.

"One of us should probably go find Terra and talk to her as well," said Aqualad. "I know she didn't show any sign of it while she left, but she was pretty strongly affected by what just happened. From what I know about her, she's probably holed up somewhere crying her eyes out. And dark history or not, she doesn't deserve to be left to suffer alone; not this time."

The four Jump City Titans thought to themselves, and then nodded in agreement; Starfire being the very first to do so. "Agreed," she said. "I shall go find her."

"No," said Aqualad. He looked over at Starfire. "Thank you, but I think I should go," he then said. "She may have kept secrets from me just like she did with you, but her betrayal to the team didn't affect me as strongly as you; and it certainly helped that I wasn't even aware of those particular details about her until about a week or so after you managed to make your comeback and Terra was turned to stone. Out of all of us, since my history with her hasn't had nearly as much darkness interwoven between me and her compared to you guys, I'm the one that she's probably the least likely to feel even guiltier talking to then she already does."

Starfire thought to herself, and then nodded in agreement as she realized the sense in what Aqualad had said. "Very well," she then said. "Go ahead friend."

"Thank you," said the Atlantean. He looked over at each of the four Jump City Titans present. "Wish me luck," he then stated before he turned to face the area where Terra had entered and left the clearing and walked down the same path himself.

When Aqualad was out of sight and hearing range, the four Jump City Titans present in the clearing gathered together in a circle reminiscent of a football huddle. "Alright team, Aqualad's volunteered to talk things out with Terra. But right now, we need to discuss the green elephant in the room."

At the sight of the perplexed look that abruptly came onto Starfire's face, Robin mentally face palmed. "Forgive me," said Starfire. "But we are not in a room, and there is no elephant, green or otherwise, present in the area . . ." Then she noticed the 'really' looks on Cyborg and Raven's faces and the closed eyed tight mouthed look on that of her boyfriend. "I'm not helping."

"Oh, you think?" said Cyborg. At the sight of the glare that Robin directed, Cyborg gulped. "Sorry," said the half robot.

Robin sighed, shook his head side to side, and then sighed once more. "Look, the point is, right now, one of us still needs to go talk to Beast Boy like Raven suggested. And right now, we need to decide just which one of us should do that. We can't all do it at once, because that might overwhelm in this current situation. And if we send the wrong person, that might only make him feel worse; and that's the last thing we need right now."

"Oh that's easy," said Cyborg. "Just send Raven. She's always been able to get through to him at times like these. She got him to come out of his room after the night of Terra's original betrayal and got him to cheer up after the incident with the Beast. Shouldn't be too hard for her to get him back on his feet for this little incident."

Robin didn't take long at all to see the logic in Cyborg's suggestion, and he looked over towards Raven to voice his newly made decision. But the sorceress was already shaking her head. "While I'm flattered that you all have such high faith in my ability to get through to Beast Boy in times like these, I'm afraid that this time I must decline. You can't always rely on me being around to do the dirty work for you in every Beast Boy angst situation. Just because you don't do as good of a job at helping him through these situations as I do, doesn't mean that you have the right for me to be your default Titan to send to talk to him."

The sorceress then looked straight at Robin. "And for this specific situation, I recommend that _you_ be the one to go talk to him."

At the sound of this, Cyborg and Starfire were quite surprised. But then they thought to themselves and looked over to Robin to see what he would say. Robin also looked quite surprised at first. But then he cleared his throat, regained his usual pokerfaced look, and directed it at Raven. "And why do you recommend that _I_ be the one to talk to Beast Boy?"

Raven, much to Robin's chagrin, answered almost immediately. "Because out of all four of us, you are the one who has the most difficulty at getting off the high horse when it comes to talking with him." The sorceress folded her arms across her chest and glared at Robin. "Let's face it, aside from the usual joining in with him when playing video games or eating pizza or doing our job, you never spend any time with him and have a relationship with him so difficult that it makes my relationship with him look mild. And whenever you're in the wrong when it comes to him, you always send one of us to talk things out with him instead of mustering up the guts to talk to him yourself or similarly working to improve your standing with him."

Robin's eyes narrowed. "Name one example."

Raven glared. "The incident from two years ago when he turned into the Beast for the first time."

Robin raised his eyebrow. "What does that have to do . . ." he managed to state before he then remembered what specific detail from that case his sorceress friend was now referring to.

Raven, clearly having both already had that detail on her mind and noticed Robin's pause at remembering said detail, nodded her head in a 'I-rest-my-case' gesture. "Not only were you needlessly brutal in your questioning him during that time, but you also never apologized for threatening to send him to jail. It's been two years since then, and you _still_ haven't apologized to him. In fact, every time he screws up, even when it's by accident, you are always unfairly hard on him and try to force him to man up when he's not ready. And in a moment like this, the last thing he needs if for you to make him feel even more untrusted by having us give him your condolences for you when he'd feel much better if you'd just man up and do it yourself."

Robin's eyes narrowed in anger as well as embarrassment at how Raven was actually telling the truth. But before the Boy Wonder could say anything, Cyborg said, "She does have a point their Robin." Robin turned his head to face Cyborg, who was now nodding his head with his eyes closed as if to confirm to himself that he was right. "And while we're at it," Cyborg continued, "You did also make a pretty big ass of yourself during that little spat we had over those 'Beast Buster Plans' we caught you working on the week after that little incident. _And_ , just like with when you threatened to send him to jail before we found out that Adonis had been the one who'd attacked Raven, you _still_ haven't apologized for blowing up at him so savagely the way you did during that other little mess either."

Robin groaned, and hung his head, mentally face palming at the memory of the incident Cyborg had now brought up. "I will _never_ live that down, will I?" he thought to himself.

"I'm sorry that I'm saying this," said Starfire. In that moment, Robin knew that he was now officially overruled in Raven's suggestion, whether he liked it or not. "But our friends have a valid point. You have in the past treated Beast Boy very needlessly unfairly. And to date, I do not remember you once apologizing personally for any of those moments."

The Tamaranean then hung her head, but not before Robin saw the look on her face. And upon sight of the very sad and guilty look that was on his girlfriend's face, Robin actually gulped, with a guilty look of his own on his face as he realized one other important detail that Starfire had very conveniently chosen not to bring up. In a sense, entirely thanks to him, she herself hadn't entirely acted any better towards Beast Boy during at least one or more of the incidents that had occurred between him and the shapeshifter. In fact, during the now very clearly mentioned incident regarding the 'Beast Buster Plans', while Raven and Cyborg had very vocally sided with Beast Boy and vehemently stood up for him against Robin, Starfire had blindly jumped, practically by default, to Robin's defense. And while, in the end, Cyborg, Raven, and Beast Boy had overruled Robin and virtually threatened him into destroying the plans and locking himself out of the Titans' computer mainframe for a month, Beast Boy had been very deeply affected by Starfire's siding with Robin, taking it as a very personal betrayal.

In fact, now that Robin remembered all to painfully, Beast Boy had very publically refused to speak to Starfire for a week before the Tamaranean had apologized. And even after that, since she had apologized both for herself as well as for Robin, it had still taken almost the rest of the month for him to trust her enough again in time for when the issues with Silky had begun. Robin thought to himself, a now guilty, yet also thoughtful, look on his face as he reconsidered Raven's suggestion to talk thing out with Beast Boy himself. "Maybe I should get off my high horse for once and talk with him as a real friend. I did make a vow to stop treating him and the rest like pieces on a chess board after Tokyo, and considering what I've now got at stake, I might as well continue working on keeping that vow by talking this current issue out with Beast Boy."

He looked straight back at his three friends, and nodded his head. "You know what," he stated. "You all actually have a very good point there. It really is high time I get off my high horse for once. I shall go talk to Beast Boy." He turned around, took a deep breath, and started making his way in the direction of where Beast Boy had flown off to. But then he stopped cold, seemingly as if he'd just realized something. And in fact, the Boy Wonder had indeed realized something.

In spite of how it was actually a good idea for Robin to talk to Beast Boy in the current situation when one considered the history that Raven had brought up, that same history, which included a not entirely incident that had happened involving the Boy Wonder getting punched in the face when he'd tried to forcibly put a stop to Terra and Beast Boy's squabbling, was also perfectly reasonable grounds for Beast Boy to not necessarily be all that keen on seeing his fearless leader at the moment. But then Robin gritted his teeth and steeled himself up. He needed to be a man, and he needed to be a good friend. But first . . . "Star?"

"Yes Robin?" Starfire asked.

"I'll just say this now, if Beast Boy turns out to be all that keen on me being in his presence after punching me out during that argument from earlier and things head south . . . know that I love you."

And with that little goodbye out of the way, Robin started running through the forest, now clearly wishing to get the whole ordeal over with as quickly as possible.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, in the clearing where the Titans had set up camp, Beast Boy was now sitting nearby the empty fire pit, his legs bent, his hands resting on his knees with his chin resting on his hands, glaring blankly at the fire pit as he worked to regain his composure from his very big argument he'd had with Terra. The green boy took a deep breath, and then exhaled heavily. He was definitely not happy at the moment. But at the same time, he was neither 100% angry nor 100% sad.

Admittedly, a small part of him was quite proud and pleased with himself for standing up for himself and for letting out that considerable bit of anger he'd still had in him over his past with Terra. But at the same time, he was also both sad and angry with himself for acting so horridly savage and cruel in his behavior over the course of the argument. And at this particular moment, Beast Boy couldn't help but feel as if he was having difficulty deciding whether or not to break down crying or go flying into a rage.

"Yes, let it all out. You know that the traitor is right, and that it would be so much healthier for you to let all that darkness and negativity you still have in you out."

Beast Boy raised his eyebrow and glared at nothing in particular in irritation. Clearly, the Beast was also not being very helpful in the current matter.

"Admit it," the Beast spoke. "It felt good to let out that lingering anger you still had towards her. Don't you deny it, unleashing your feelings from behind that wall of saccharine happy-go-luckiness you've been storing them behind has made you far happier than all your efforts at making your friends laugh and smile with you for the last five years of your life! Stop torturing yourself, act on your feelings! Let it all out and be free!"

"Shut up," Beast Boy snarled, very much not in the mood to have another internal debate with his corporeal dark side. "I'm not in the mood."

"That's the point," the Beast growled. "The traitor said it best. You're never in the mood for these talks. No time is ever a good time. The traitor herself said it already, you've done battle with far worse things on the corporeal side of things; yet you even now refuse to face the very real turmoil that even now howls and rages at you to be let loose. You've always been an ardent supporter in letting animas be free from cages and roam freely in healthy and realistic environments! Unlock your inner cage, let your inner demons go, and relieve yourself of the burden that is even now emotionally killing you as we speak!"

Beast Boy gritted his teeth, cursing mentally at how very obviously correct the Beast was, but still stubbornly refusing to admit it.

"I heard all that," the Beast said, clearly not amused by his host's mental cursing. "And just because you refuse to believe me doesn't make what I say any less true."

"Yeah well, you may be right," Beast Boy snarled. "But that doesn't mean I have to like it!"

"It does not matter whether not you like it!" the Beast snarled back. "It is still true! As much as you may hate it, this is not a corporeal predator that you can outrun like prey! You can't run away from your problems forever, and ignoring them like a cowardly whining cub will not make them go away!"

"Maybe I don't want them to go away!" Beast Boy yelled. "Maybe I actually deserve to suffer the way I currently am! My friends here in the Titans certainly treat me as if I do!"

"They wouldn't do that if you'd be brave and tell them about it like a real friend would do," the Beast growled. Snarling, he continued, "Honestly host, think about how much better things would be for you in life and among your friends if they knew! Or better yet, think of how your parents would feel about all this needless travesty you put yourself through! You know them best! Do you really think they would want you to forcibly hang on to the negativity you've kept bottled up inside all these years since their deaths? Do you really think they would approve of what those scientists did to you? Do you really believe that they would want you to hold in your anger at Mento when you have every right to be angry at him for how he treated you? Do you truly believe that your father would want you to let his savage of a brother get away with how he made your life a living nightmare? And even if you truly are stupid enough to believe all that, I know for a _fact_ that they would want you to grieve properly for their deaths!"

"That's none of your business!" Beast Boy roared.

"I LIVE INSIDE YOUR MIND! I AM JUST AS MUCH A PART OF YOU AS ALL THE OTHER ANIMALS IN YOUR MIND, OR ANY PHYSICAL PIECE OF YOU! THAT STUFF IS JUST AS MUCH MY BUSINESS AS IT IS YOURS!"

Beast Boy could only growl in response, for the Beast had given far too powerful a comeback for him to counter this time. But as it soon turned out, the Beast hadn't even finished yet. "Don't you deny it host! We both know that I'm right! And while it may have been fine for you to perpetually lean on your defense mechanism when you were a child, you cannot expect it to always be there for you now that you're almost at the point where your kind has you legally labeled an adult! And if you ever want to be capable of feeling as happy as you used to feel, and deep down still want to be able to feel all over again, then you cannot keep forcing yourself to rely on taking the easy route! Sooner or later, you will have to take the hard path! Because as much as you may dread it, sometimes the only way to truly live a meaningful and truly happy life is to make and act upon the hard choices!"

The air was then split by the sound of footsteps approaching. "I shall let you back off the hook for this moment," said the Beast. "At this time, one of your friends is on his way here to speak with you, and you deserve the time to talk to your ally. But mark my words, we will have this talk again." The Beast retreated back into Beast Boy's subconscious, and the changeling turned his head to face the direction he'd heard the footsteps coming from just in time to see none other than Robin come walking calmly into the campsite. Beast Boy briefly tensed up purely on instinct at the sight of his fearless leader; but then he noticeably calmed himself down and relaxed when his instincts managed to notice that Robin didn't mean him any harm.

"Robin," said Beast Boy. "I wasn't expecting you to come here."

"I know," said Robin. He walked on over and took a seat directly to Beast Boy's right. "That's actually one of the reasons that I really need to talk to you right now."

Beast Boy mentally groaned when he heard those last few words. "Look Robin," he stated. "I know that I screwed up bad back in that clearing with Terra. But please, I'm really not in the mood for you to lecture me or likewise rub it in . . ."

"Please hear me out Beast Boy," said Robin. The Boy Wonder sighed, shook his head side to side, and then looked straight at Beast Boy. "Look, I know that our friendship isn't the strongest compared to our individual relationships with the other members of this team."

"Tell me something I don't know," Beast Boy grumbled, turning his head to look at the fire pit once more.

"But it's my fault that we don't have a stronger friendship between us," Robin continued, seemingly ignoring Beast Boy. _That_ was enough to draw Beast Boy's attention back to the dark haired overall leader of the Titans. "Honest it is. I really should treat you better, I really should. But instead, I've treated you even more like a chess piece then I have for all the others."

Robin turned his head to look in front of him rather than at Beast Boy. "A real friend would have been much nicer to you; and a real friend would definitely have apologized for any wrongdoings against you. I never even apologized once for how I threatened to send you to jail during that incident two years ago when the Beast first surfaced, let alone for how I acted over the course of that little blowout argument we had over the course of the 'Beast Buster Plans' incident. Heck, the only time I've ever truly acted like a real friend at a time you needed one was when I apologized for framing you on the day that Terra first ran away from us."

"And for that time, I am truly thankful," Beast Boy responded, a small smile on his face as he remembered that treasured moment of true companionship between him and the Boy Wonder.

"I know that Beast Boy," said Robin. "But don't you get it? That's the kind of friend that I should always be towards you and the others, especially after our experiences in Tokyo."

Robin got up on his feet. "But no," he then stated bitterly almost to himself. "Instead, I've only ever treated you like a friend at the level that a commanding officer or similar higher up would deem appropriate for treating his underlings. And whenever I actually have mustered up the guts to throw aside my pride and apologize to you, I've always sent you my words through someone else's mouth. You call that being a real friend? No, I don't think so."

The Boy Wonder sat down once more. "Look Beast Boy, what I'm trying to say is that I'm sorry, for everything. And I'm especially sorry for my very inopportune time to try to intervene between you and Terra not too long ago."

Beast Boy sighed at the reminder of his very heated argument with Terra. "Look Robin, you don't have to apologize for that . . ."

"I mean it Beast Boy," said Robin. "I am sorry for all that. And I won't hold what happened during that little incident against you. None of us will. As my friend, not to mention the closest thing I've ever had in a long time to a little brother, you deserve better than that."

The Boy Wonder looked back at Beast Boy. "And believe me, you had every right to behave the way you did and be as angry as you were during that argument. Granted, I'm just as relieved as anyone else that the Beast didn't manage to surface, but nonetheless, that anger you expressed and the argument was a perfectly natural human thing to do. I mean come on, if I'd been in your shoes during a situation like the one you were going through back there, I'd honestly be surprised if I didn't react somewhat the same way you did."

Beast Boy thought to himself, seemingly stunned speechless. "So . . ." he eventually said. "You're not upset?"

Robin shook his head. "I'm not angry at you Beast Boy," he responded. "Granted, I _was_ more than a little upset with you during the earlier moments of the incident. But after getting punched out, let's just say that I was able to open my eyes and ears so that I could actually pay attention to the actual argument itself as opposed to just the bare surface fact that you were in the midst of an, admittedly not entirely well timed, argument. And let's just say that, we understand what happened was a natural and, at that time, necessary thing to unfold. And we're not gonna hold that against you."

Beast Boy thought to himself, briefly wondering whether or not to truly believe what Robin was saying. In the end, his instincts eventually decided that Robin could truly be trusted this time. "If you say so."

"Glad to hear that," Robin said. The Boy Wonder then got back up on his feet. "Come on Beast Boy," he then said. "Let's go back to the others. I'm sure they'd love to talk to you right now as well."

Robin started walking back towards the entrance from which he'd entered the campsite clearing. Then he paused upon noticing that he didn't hear the sound of footsteps following behind him, and he turned to see that Beast Boy hadn't gotten up from his original position. "Beast Boy?" Robin asked. "Aren't you coming?"

"Oh I will," said Beast Boy. He then hung his head, "But first, well, since you appear to be willing, I thought now might be a good time to tell you about something that I think I probably could have mentioned earlier then now."

Robin thought to himself. "I guess it wouldn't hurt," he decided mentally before walking back over to Beast Boy and sitting down one more. "What is it?"

Beast Boy cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "Well, to be honest, there's still one other reason behind why I've been acting so uncomfortable around Terra lately that I never mentioned back at the beach or on the trip to the Steel City area."

Robin raised his eyebrow at the sound of this. "Really?" he asked.

Beast Boy nodded his head.

For a brief moment, Robin was on the verge of snapping over Beast Boy not having brought up this possibly important matter earlier. But in the end, he managed to calm himself down internally. "Be calm, he probably had perfectly good reason to withhold this information. And besides, it's not like he's hiding a major earthshaking secret or something that could be considered treason against the team. Not to mention, I am supposed to be working on being a better friend to him and the others now." Upon finishing this internal talk to himself, Robin took a deep breath, exhaled, and then said, "Let's hear it then."

Beast Boy smiled nervously, intertwined his gloved fingers nervously, and then briefly looked around the area as if checking for eavesdroppers or similar spies. Then he looked straight at Robin, took a deep breath, and then said, "You remember the incident from two months ago right?"

Robin's eyes narrowed at the reminder of his deal and the reasons behind it. "Yes," he said tensely.

"And you remember how Cy, the girls, and I were originally left with only a hazy grasp of what happened to us to the point that it seemed like just a dream?"

"I do," Robin responded. "But what does that. . .?" He then paused as a thought occurred to him about why Beast Boy had brought up the matter. "Your memories of your time in the afterlife are starting to become more clear and fully return aren't they?"

Beast Boy nodded in a 'yes' fashion. "You could say that I am starting to become a bit more. . . aware." The changeling moved his head in multiple directions once again to reassure himself that no one was watching or listening in on him and Robin. "And that being said, there's one particular detail I've now become completely aware of that has given me perfectly legitimate grounds to have not really been all that comfortable in hanging around Terra early on over the course of this adventure."

Robin leaned forward, clearly interested. "I'm all ears," said the Boy Wonder.

Beast Boy smiled nervously, took a deep breath, and exhaled. "Ok, you remember how we all told you about remembering the overall story of us waking up in that cloudy area outside Heaven's gates in the veil, walking up to and entering the Pearly Gates, and then being held up in the antechamber while talking to Gabriel right?"

Robin nodded his head. "Won't forget that conversation in a hurry."

"Well I've now also managed to remember the full details about the conversation we had with him," Beast Boy continued. "And the very last thing we talked about before Nehreezah brought us back is the extra detail behind my current dilemma regarding Terra."

Robin's eyes briefly narrowed at the mention of Nehreezah, but he held back his annoyance and steeled himself up so that he would be able to listen to the entirety of whatever it was Beast Boy was about to tell him. "And that detail is?"

"Well, here's the thing, turns out, according to Gabriel anyway, apparently Heaven isn't just this endless landscape of clouds and inescapably mingling souls and angels. Apparently, one thing that Supernatural actually got right was that every soul has his or her own individual living space that serves as their own personal Heaven."

Robin thought to himself. "Huh, that would actually make more sense than the usual stereotype," he stated aloud. "But what does that have to do with your Terra dilemma?"

"I'm getting to that," Beast Boy stated patiently. "Now another thing; while the souls are allowed indefinite visiting hours to other soul's living spaces, usually every single soul's living space in Heaven is exclusively the home for that specific soul. However, in some cases, particularly when it comes to those who are soul mates, there are Heaven's where two or more souls live together in the same 'heaven'."

"And?" Robin asked patiently.

"Well here's where things get juicy," said Beast Boy. "Soon after we learned that information, I first chose to test this knowledge by asking Gabriel to show me my parents and their heaven. He complied."

"Go on," said Robin.

"With the information confirmed and proven," Beast Boy continued, "Cyborg then asked Gabriel to show him his heaven, and again the arch angel complied. Then Starfire asked him to let her see her own heaven, and he did. And as it turns out, she's actually been set to share her heaven with you."

Robin was briefly caught off guard by this knowledge, but then he blushed and briefly hung his head in embarrassment. "Well, that's touching," he then said. He looked back up at Beast Boy. "And, after that?"

Beast Boy took a deep breath, and exhaled once more. It was now clear that he had finally reached the moment of truth. "Well here's the thing. After Gabriel had shut off the image vision for you and Star's heaven, I asked him to show me mine. And he did. Now here's the thing, while I definitely have to agree that it certainly looked like it fit the part for my kind of heaven, there were also a few elements that seemed more like the kind of thing to be a closer fit with someone else's heaven; namely, the heaven of a certain . . . um . . . unique friend of ours."

At the sound of that description, Robin's eyes widened as he realized what Beast Boy was now likely implying. Sure enough, Beast Boy's next comment all but confirmed Robin's newfound suspicions. "Soon after I noticed these particular elements and made comments to Gabriel about the matter, Gabriel responded, and I'm paraphrasing here, 'well I'm glad you noticed; after all, this is her heaven as well.' And of course, I then commented that he said that this was my heaven. And his response, and I quote, was 'precisely'. And before I could say anything further on the matter, that was when the lights started going all crazy, Gabriel dismissed the vision of my heaven and Raven's, gave us his goodbyes, and the rest is history."

Robin thought to himself, memorizing and analyzing every detail Beast Boy had now revealed. Truth be told, he was starting to get an idea as to why this particular incident would make things especially difficult for Beast Boy now in regard to matters involving Terra. "So basically," said Robin, "you're saying that Gabriel, and likely the entirety of Heaven, is basically in agreement that Raven is supposedly your soul mate and destined to share a living space in Heaven with you, but you yourself aren't entirely certain as to whether or not you believe that yourself."

Beast Boy nodded. "Exactly. And not only that, but even without all this stuff about soul mates and sharing heavenly living space, Raven and I have been pretty good friends for a pretty good while now. And also, as I mentioned to Terra during that argument we had just now, I myself am not really certain if I really even know what love actually is. And that being said, I'm not really sure how I feel for Raven or for Terra in general, let alone in that kind of regard. So of course it would be natural for me to have the necessity to sort out my own feelings here, and that will already be difficult enough. And needless to say, Terra's presence here right now, especially after everything that's happened, isn't exactly making things any easier for me with all the drama I already have to go through."

The changeling hung his head. "And I just don't know what I'm supposed to do." He looked back up at Robin. "You understand right?"

Robin thought to himself, and then nodded. He in fact actually did have somewhat of an idea as to what Beast Boy was going through in that one particular regard. "I do," he responded truthfully. "And that being said, I'm sure that the rest of our friends will understand as well."

Beast Boy's eyes widened, for he had a bad feeling about what Robin was implying with that last statement. Robin hurriedly placed his hand on the green boy's shoulder to calm him down. "It's ok Beast Boy, like I told you, I'm not angry at you about what happened earlier between you and Terra. And neither are the others. Yes, it could have happened at a better time, but we understand why it happened. Heck, I actually am slightly relieved that it's occurred."

Beast Boy's eye brow rose. "And why would such an incident be cause for relief?"

Robin chuckled sheepishly. "Honestly Beast Boy, when you do the math correctly, it was really only a matter of time before you and Terra had a blowout like that. And that being said, I'm glad that you've already had it now and gotten it over with instead of leaving us forced to wait until later."

Beast Boy thought to himself. "Well," he admitted. "When you put it that way, I can certainly agree with you there."

Robin nodded his head in understanding. "Indeed, and it may not feel like it now, but in the end, it's better this way. Trust me, I know."

Beast Boy chuckled nervously. "I'll take your word for it."

"Good," said Robin. He got back up on his feet, looked over at the exit back to where the other Titans were. "Well, if that's all you had left to talk about for the moment, I say now's a good time to head back to the others."

This time, Beast Boy nodded his head in agreement. "Might as well," he said. "I'm sure they'd probably like to have some time to talk things with over me as well now that you've done your part."

"My thoughts exactly," said Robin with a smile. "Let's go."

Beast Boy nodded, and got up on his feet. He looked over at Robin. "Should I fly over?"

Robin shook his head. "Actually, I think I'd prefer it if we both walked back together. We could certainly use the extra time. And besides, it would certainly help strengthen the camaraderie."

Beast Boy thought to himself. "If you say so," he eventually responded.

And so, the two boys proceeded to head back on foot towards where Cyborg and the girls were still waiting. And as they headed back, both boys actually felt quite proud of themselves. In Robin's case, he felt as if he'd managed to make a major milestone in improving his friendship with Beast Boy, and through that, continued to fulfill his vow he'd made after Daizo's defeat in Tokyo. Beast Boy, meanwhile, was also glad to have had that talk with Robin and that he had been forgiven for his unpleasant incident earlier with Terra. But at that the same time, he was also feeling proud of himself for how he'd managed to unveil one of his secrets to the Boy Wonder.

In fact, the changeling was actually doubly proud of this factor in light of his earlier conversation with the Beast. Granted, there were other things he still had yet to talk about to any of his friends in the Titans that he knew would be considerably more difficult to bring up. But even so, he had at least gotten a good start. And for all he knew, if he could successfully open up on some of his more recent and less emotionally charged secrets, then maybe he could have an easier time down the road when the time came for him to come clean about his past. And he already a feeling both from his conversation with the Beast, as well as from what Robin had said about bringing up their pasts back on the T-Ship during their flight to Steel City, that it would indeed be a matter of when he ended up having to talk about his past in full detail as opposed to an if. But for now, he was simply glad that the whole debacle from earlier was now behind him. Already, he was feeling much better than he had expected to feel this early after his argument with Terra.

 **And just like that, another chapter done! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and that you leave plenty of feedback! In fact, while we're at it, I have to admit, while I do feel pretty proud of what I managed to cook up for the majority of this chapter's events (especially Beast Boy's conversation with the Beast), I'm actually not exactly all that impressed with how I ended up having to end this chapter. I don't know why but, IMO, the ending to me felt a little weak. But in the end, it was the best I could come up with, and I just wanted this chapter to be over so I could move on to the next chapter. But hey, feel free to tell me your opinion on how well I did with this chapter. I'm all ears.**

 **Coming up next: With Robin having gotten Beast Boy back up on his feet, it's now time to see whether or not Aqualad manages to have similar success with Terra. And with that in mind, it's time for a little ship-teasing. ;)**


	11. A Comforting Oasis

**And here, my friends, is yet another chapter! And it's only been 9 days since the last chapter I posted! Me thinks my prospects at making faster updates could (emphasis on COULD) be pretty good now. :) And that being said, just to recap, in this chapter, with Beast Boy already well on the mend thanks to Robin, it's now time to see if Aqualad has similar success in getting Terra back on her feet (with a healthy dose of ship teasing added into the mix as well ;) if you know what I mean). And that being said, here goes!**

 **A/N: But first, just to remind you guys once more, I do not own Teen Titans, or any other DC universe elements, AT ALL. And now, with that out of the way, onward with the fic!**

 **Chapter 10:**

 **A Comforting Oasis**

Meanwhile, back at the river, Terra was still crying her eyes out. Truth be told, Terra herself had never even before thought it possible for a person to cry as much as she currently was. But indeed she was crying that badly, she was indeed that sad. "God, why did I have to be such an idiot?" she whimpered to herself tearfully. "Why couldn't I have just accepted what I had, or at the very least been more patient?"

In fact, what Terra herself didn't know was that she was actually feeling even worse then Beast Boy had both been expected to feel and turned out to actually feel at this point after their argument. For while Beast Boy had felt a good few twinges of sadness, he'd been also still feeling equally strongly lingering anger that had kept him from visibly crying. Terra, however, had no anger left in her, and felt only sadness at how horribly she'd screwed up.

From what she understood, and was certain the Titans would make no effort to convince her into thinking otherwise, she had acted like a spoiled, petulant, whiny, unfeeling, self-centered brat. And over the course of her behavior, she had savagely alienated several old friends that she'd already brutally betrayed before, dismissed several other potential new friends that were potentially at risk of being killed or worse if they weren't saved within the next two or so days as unimportant, and almost certainly destroyed what little friendship she'd had left, let alone restored, with the one friend she'd had who she'd thought for sure would always be on her side. And to top it all off, she had not only very publically ended up receiving a very brutal rejection from said friend, but she'd also committed all the behavior she'd demonstrated before being sent toppling off her high-horse as a result of acting on a not entirely well founded and very poorly timed case of petty jealousy. And needless to say, she felt horrible about it. "They'll never forgive me now," she squeaked melancholically. "Not this time. Not ever." And almost immediately after she said all that, she placed her face on her hands and started crying again.

At the same time that this was happening, Aqualad was standing not too far away from behind Terra, a guilty and saddened look on his face as he watched the former geomancer sobbing and weeping. He sighed, and hung his head. Judging from the state Terra currently appeared to be in, cheering her up would be even harder then he'd thought.

"Well," he thought to himself. "I might as well get this over with." After all, just standing around and watching Terra cry wasn't going to make cheering her up any easier. He stepped forward into the area with the river. "Hey Terra."

Terra lifted her head and turned to look behind her, tears still in her eyes, and a look of embarrassment now mixed in with her sadness. "What are you doing here?" Terra asked, in a tone that sounded far more saddened and tired then the anger that she'd been attempting to infuse into her comment.

Aqualad continued making his way towards Terra, unphased by Terra's tone. "I've come to help cheer you up," the Atlantean responded. He came to a stop directly to Terra's right and slid himself onto the empty space so as to join her on the rock that she was perched on. "Thought you could use some company, and some time to talk things out. Make you feel better." He looked towards her as he said the last bit.

Terra sighed, and looked back over at the river. "Well good luck with that," she grumbled.

Aqualad sighed, briefly looked over at the water, and then turned his head back to Terra. "Look, I understand that you feel bad right now."

Terra snorted bitterly. "Bad?" she asked. "That's an understatement."

"I'll admit, I probably could have picked better vocabulary to describe your situation," said Aqualad. "But nevertheless, while I will admit that you probably really aren't in the mood to talk right now, please at least hear me out. I really do want to help you here."

Terra sighed, and hung her head. "Well you're wasting your time," said the former geomancer. "I'd rather wallow away here on my own. And quite frankly, even if I did want any help, I doubt I'd really deserve it right now."

"Well regardless what you think, I'm staying here to help," said Aqualad. He placed his left hand on Terra's right shoulder. "And I'm not leaving until I've successfully cheered you back up."

Terra sighed, and turned her head to face Aqualad. "Why are you doing this Aqualad?" she asked. "Aren't you angry at me?"

"No," said Aqualad. "Of course not."

Terra groaned, turned her head to face the river once more. "Well you should be," she stated. "Last time I checked, you're the one whose team mates I dismissed as unimportant in the face of some frivolous trifle even though they're being held hostage and potentially at risk of dying or worse. If that's not reason enough for you to hate me right now, I don't know what is."

Aqualad, it has to be admitted, actually briefly gritted his teeth upon being reminded of that one particular detail. Now that Terra had brought it up, there was still a small part of him that wasn't entirely all that happy with Terra for so callously placing higher priority on sorting out issues of past romantic history with Beast Boy then on rescuing his team mates. But of course, now was hardly the best time to admit to that considering the fact that he was currently sitting right there next to the poor girl.

He closed his eyes, mentally took deep breathes to maintain his composure, and then responded, "You were passionately angry at the time. Anger clouds judgment, and we tend to lose ourselves when we're angry. I know you don't truly think that low of my friends, and that if you hadn't been so angry about those other matters while arguing with Beast Boy, you never would have said any of that stuff. I won't hold it against you, and I'm certain that neither will the others. Heck, for all I know, Beast Boy could soon very well be back to his usual happy self within another day or two once the other Titans have him back on his feet."

Terra sighed once more, hung her head, and then turned her head to face Aqualad once more. "That certainly does sound like him," she then said.

Aqualad's eyebrow rose at the sound of Terra's half sad and half exhausted tone in which she'd just now spoken. "Wouldn't that be a good thing?" he then asked.

Terra sighed. "Well yes, I mean, of course it would. It's just. . ." she hung her head once more.

"It's ok Terra," said Aqualad. "Whatever it is you've got on your mind; you can tell me."

Terra's eyebrow rose. "You swear on that?"

Aqualad smiled. "Poseidon's honor," responded the Atlantean.

Terra made a small chuckle. "If you say so," said the former geomancer. She looked back at the river. "And that being said, well, here's the thing." She hung her head. "Look, I know that I probably should have seen this coming, and quite frankly, it's not entirely surprising that things have turned out the way they currently have after all the time that's passed."

Aqualad nodded his head in sympathy. "Understandable," he agreed.

Terra sighed. "But even so, and I know that this will probably make me sound like some selfish, untrustworthy, two-timing whore, but part of me really actually liked Beast Boy that way." She lifted her head back up. "And I guess that same part of me just still hoped that maybe Beast Boy genuinely felt the same way instead of just a simple schoolyard level crush as it's now apparently turned out to be, as well as that maybe, in spite of everything, we could still have a chance together."

Terra looked away to her left. "I thought I'd changed since all those incidents back then, I really did. But every time I get a chance to really prove myself and show how I've changed, I always end up ruining everything between us all over again." She hung her head once more. "And yes Aqualad, I know he'll keep saying otherwise, but I just have this feeling regarding him when it comes to him and Raven, especially compared to me. Even if he says otherwise, I just have this feeling that he's already feeling something stronger for her then he did with me without him even knowing. And even if he truly hasn't romantically moved on with anyone else, I'm certain that when he does find himself truly in love, it won't be with me. It's like an animal instinct, you know? And I don't know but, it just felt so much easier for me to just blame him or Raven then to just accept the reality of it all. And I just wish that I could have just accepted that things have changed and let go of the past. I mean, I should feel happy with what I had and what I'd managed to restore between us before that argument. If I ever really loved him, I would have definitely been happy for him being able to move on from the tragedy and become happy again. But it's just, part of me just didn't want to let go. It just felt so unfair to have to just leave all that stuff we'd had in the past behind, and I just wish that I could have that stuff back without screwing things up all over again. And . . . and . . ."

At that moment, Terra completely lost it once more and started crying again. Aqualad gently patted her on the head, and when she turned her head to face him in response, he spread his arms outwards. It didn't take long at all for Terra to determine the meaning behind this gesture, and she eagerly turned around and leaned forward so as to place her head on his right shoulder and wrap her arms around him, crying the entire time. Aqualad wrapped his own arms around Terra in a gesture of comfort. And for the next few minutes that followed, the Atlantean and half Markovian remained positioned in this manner, with Terra crying on Aqualad's shoulder while Aqualad maintained his comforting embrace around Terra and whispered words of encouragement in her ear.

By the time Terra had finally gotten the last of her crying out of her system, both teens seemed at first unwilling to let go of each other. But in the end, their reasonable sides won, and they managed to let go of each other and turn around so that they were both facing the river once more. "Sorry about that Aqualad," Terra then said seconds later. "I just, had to get that out of my system. You know?"

Aqualad nodded his head. "I understand perfectly Terra. And believe me, I know it's hard. But in the end, not everybody can get that perfect happy ending that always comes at the end of all those stories we read when we're children. This is life, and sometimes we just have to accept that it's not fair. All we can do during moments like that is to just be thankful for what we do have and move on."

Terra sighed. "I guess you're right," she reluctantly admitted. She turned her head towards Aqualad. "It still hurts though."

"I know," said Aqualad. "But in the end, it's really for the best that we just let go of the past and move on. It may not feel like it now, but in the end, it could be better this way for all we know."

"And if it's not?" Terra asked.

Aqualad sighed. "Well then I guess we'll just have to cross that bridge when we get there."

Terra thought to herself. "I suppose so." She turned her head back up so she could face the river once more. For the next few minutes or so, the two teens remained seated together on the rock in a respectful silence.

Eventually, Aqualad turned his head to face Terra. "Think we should head back to where the others were?"

Terra thought to herself. "Well, I honestly don't know. I mean, it's still hasn't been relatively that long since the argument this afternoon. And I'm not entirely certain I'm ready to face Beast Boy and the others just yet."

Aqualad placed his hand back on the former geomancer's shoulder. "Don't worry Terra. Everything will be fine. I'll be right there for moral support."

"If you say so," Terra responded with a small chuckle. She looked back at the river. "Even so, I just hope that Beast Boy at least will be able to forgive me. I mean, after all that's already happened, he's bound to be having his forgiveness threshold for me pretty heavily tested. And that's being optimistic considering the fact that I still have the other Titans to think about as well. I mean, I've already put them through so much. I really want to be their friend again, but I'm afraid that may not be possible anymore."

"Don't worry," said Aqualad. "I'm sure everything will be fine. And believe me, if you do manage to become full on friends with them again, just be glad to have them as friends, especially Beast Boy. Believe me, regardless of how you may or not feel about each other, it's better to at least have a strong friendship then nothing else." The Atlantean then looked back at the river, hanging his head in the process. "Believe me I know," he continued. "I've been in your shoes."

Terra turned her head to face Aqualad, clearly intrigued by what she'd just heard him say. "Really?" she asked. "What do you mean?"

Aqualad sighed, and turned his head to face Terra. "You remember all that stuff I told you about my life in Atlantis?"

Terra nodded her head to indicate 'yes'.

"Well there's one particular element about that time in my life I never got the chance to talk about."

The Atlantean looked back at the river. "I know I told you about how I had friends among my fellow Atlanteans. But there were two particularly good friends of mine that I never mentioned." He rubbed his right hand through his air, his eyes closed and a smile on his face as he remembered his two best friends from his days in Atlantis. "Their names were Kaldur and Tula. We first met and befriended each other as a result of our being in the exact same classes together during our time as students at the Atlantean Academy. We were the top students there actually. And from day one, we were like peas in a pod. Even when we weren't in classes together or doing battle against enemies in the event of battles, we were always visiting and playing games with each other at every opportunity we could find. In fact, over time, our friendship continued to last even after we graduated and became Atlantis's three top soldiers in the royal family's personal defense force."

Terra couldn't help but smile as she watched and listened to Aqualad talking so happily about these two old friends of his that she'd only just now heard about. "You sound like you were really good friends with them," she then said.

"Oh you can definitely say that," Aqualad agreed, smile still on his face. "In fact, Kaldur was actually the closest thing to a brother I ever had. And as for Tula," he paused, heaving out a sentimental sigh as he remembered how close of a friend he'd been to Tula. "At first, she was just like a sister to me. But later, about when I was 12 years old, I started to feel. . . different, around Tula."

Terra thought to herself for a brief moment, trying to figure out what Aqualad meant by that last statement. Then it hit her. "You used to have a crush on her didn't you?"

Aqualad nodded his head, his eyes closed. "Yep, I did," he admitted. "Granted it took me a couple days, maybe a week, before I finally realized just exactly what it was I was now feeling about her. By the time I found out, it was three days before my 13th birthday. And it wasn't until the exact day before that day that I finally mustered up the courage to try to find her and tell her about it. But that night, when I finally found her. . ."

The Atlantean hung his head, sighing as he found himself reliving the very painful memory that he was now about to tell Terra about. "She and Kaldur were in the center of the courtyard in the very center of the city, and . . . they were . . . they were kissing."

Terra whistled in spite of herself at the sound of this information, and then winced when she realized how such an action probably wasn't exactly the politest in regard to just what Aqualad had said. "That must have hurt," she then said sheepishly.

"Oh it hurt," Aqualad agreed. "More than I can say." He lifted his head back up. "Needless to say, as it turned out, Kaldur had also fallen for Tula, and she reciprocated. And soon after I found them, I spent what seemed like hours just standing motionlessly in a nearby alleyway, watching them. Then, I eventually couldn't take it anymore, and I turned around, and silently left the area and returned to my dwelling. It took all my willpower not to cry myself to sleep when I got into my bed. And even as I was seconds away from actually going to sleep, I was hoping that it had all been a terrible nightmare."

Aqualad sighed. "But of course, as tends to happen unhealthily often in situations like this, it had not been a nightmare. The very next day, they publicly revealed themselves as a couple to the king and the rest of the Royal entourage at the royal banquet table at breakfast. And as it later turned out, not only did the king and queen give them their blessings, they had actually guessed that they'd eventually become a couple, and had reportedly even seen the signs of them being in love long before Kaldur and Tula themselves were aware of it, let alone before I became aware of it."

Terra winced. "Wow," she said. "That must have really sucked."

"It certainly put a damper on my 13th birthday that's for sure," Aqualad agreed. "And in the days that followed, my agony only expanded as they just got closer and closer. And then, for a final nail in the coffin, I managed to unwittingly eavesdrop on Tula's parents, and Kaldur's mother, having a talk with the king and queen. And here's the thing, from what I managed to overhear, they were discussing . . . betrothal matters."

"Betrothal matters?" Terra asked.

"In Atlantis, we treat love _very_ seriously. In fact, if two people in Atlantis truly love each other strongly enough, they are granted the option to consent to a betrothal. Now in Atlantis, a betrothal is basically like an Atlantean equivalent of the modern surface world tradition of an engagement, only stronger. In fact, once a betrothal is made, the only way apart from death to allow for it to be broken is infidelity."

Terra whistled. "Wow," she said. "You Atlanteans sure are romantic."

Aqualad nodded his head, chuckling. "Indeed. And to continue, Atlanteans are considered to be old enough to legally marry at age 21, but a betrothal can be set up as early as 14 years of age. And if a betrothal is made below 21, then they are legally allowed to stay that way and legally marry upon reaching 21 years of age."

Terra thought to herself, and then nodded, a small smile on her face as she thought of how very romantic the idea of what Aqualad had described actually was. But then she thought of one little detail, and her eyebrows rose in confusion. "But," she then asked. "Weren't they 13?"

"At the time that the discussion I overheard was made, yes they were. However, Tula's birthday was a week after that day, and Kaldur's was the very next month. So needless to say, they were basically going to be offered the all-clear for betrothal. And soon after I managed to overhear all that, I stopped listening and walked away. For I already knew what Tula and Kaldur's choice would be once they were given the offer."

Terra directed a look of sympathy towards Aqualad. "You knew your friends so well," she said.

"Yep," said Aqualad. "Too well for my own good. And sure enough, the day after Kaldur turned 14, their betrothal was announced to the entirety of the city, as is tradition. And in the days that followed, I soon started to spend less and less time around them. It was just so painful to see them so happy together and in love, and I was so overwhelmed with jealousy. In fact, exactly one week after the betrothal was announced, I just couldn't take it anymore, and I even went so far as to privately wish that I could be given a chance to be the one that Tula was in love with and betrothed to instead of Kaldur. I was _that_ jealous."

Terra winced upon hearing this. "Man he had it bad," she thought to herself. "So," she then said aloud. "I'm guessing Kaldur and Tula eventually found out about all that, and you got into a big fight that ruined your friendship?"

But Aqualad was already shaking his head. "Worse," he responded. "The wish came true."

Terra raised her eyebrow. "How is that worse?"

Aqualad sighed, and then hung his head. And this time, Terra saw an emotion in his facial expression that she recognized all too well, shame. "Three days after I made that wish. . . you're familiar with Trident right?"

Terra nodded. "Beast Boy and the others told me about him, and you helped fill me in on a few additional details over the course of our talks." Even as she said this, the former geomancer was already getting a feeling about where this was going.

Sure enough, Aqualad's next words confirmed what she was thinking. "Three days after I made that stupid wish, Trident attacked, and over the course of the battle, Kaldur was . . ." Aqualad paused, silently grimacing with his eyes closed as if having difficulty speaking. "He was . . ." he hung his head. "Killed in action."

Aqualad lifted his head to face the water, a look of regret in his eyes as he remembered that terrible day. "In a moment of pure childish selfishness, I had wished that I could get the chance to have Tula's love instead of Kaldur, and exactly three days later, that wish had now come true in the absolute worst way possible. And yes, you may say that it wasn't my fault, but considering the timing and how Kaldur could have easily defeated Trident if it hadn't been for some freak miracle on Trident's part, I might as well have been the one wielding the blade."

Aqualad sighed, and then looked over at Terra. "By the time the battle was over, and Trident had fled beyond the city's borders, the damage was done, and I was left with the unfortunate duty of breaking the news to the king, and then to Kaldur's mother, and then, finally, to Tula. The funerals were held the very next day. And there, seeing Tula in the state she was in at that time, that was when I realized how I truly didn't deserve her love, or even her friendship at that point. Even though I'd now been granted the chance to have it, I couldn't allow myself to pursue it. It wouldn't have been fair. And quite frankly, even if she ever had come to return my feelings at that point, she would have never truly loved me, not the way she loved Kaldur. I would have just been a second place, a silver medal."

He hung his head. "And even without that matter to consider, there was also the matter of Kaldur's mother. While she didn't blame me for the death of her son in words, the look on her face every time we saw each other after then was enough. In her eyes and on her face, I could feel her asking, 'Why you? Why did you live while my son had to die?' Eventually, I just couldn't take it anymore, and after saying my goodbyes to the king, and getting his blessing to leave, I left Atlantis. And at first, I was solely focused on journeying to find Trident and achieve justice for Kaldur. But then, over the course of my efforts to stop Trident, I ended up meeting Robin and the Titans, and ended up both achieving my original goal, _and_ gaining several new friends, plus becoming an honorary member of a brand new team." He lifted his head back, now smiling at the memory of that fateful day. "And quite honestly, I'm glad that I did." He turned his head to face Terra. "But even so, in spite of having good friendships with my fellow Titans and living at the Titans East Tower now, I still make time to visit Atlantis every once in a while. And every time I do, I always make sure to visit Tula and for the both of us to visit Kaldur's gravesite to pay our respects."

Terra nodded to herself, touched by this knowledge. "I can certainly agree that that's always a good idea," she stated in agreement. She turned her head to face the river. "I have to admit, as much as I probably really shouldn't be saying this, hearing that story you just told me does kind of make me feel better."

Aqualad nodded, as if he'd been expecting this. "Indeed," he looked back at the river. "And since then, I've learned to appreciate the relationships I have with my friends exactly as they are. As much as I still hope to find someone that I could love and be loved by in the same way that Tula and Kalder felt, I know that sometimes it truly is better to just accept having a strong friendship with my friends at the very least. Because as was sadly proven with Kaldur, life really is too short to be wishing your friends away for the sake of your own happiness."

Terra nodded her head in agreement. "I can imagine." For the next few minutes, yet another respectful silence unfolded between the two teens. Then Terra looked more closely at the river, and she found herself smiling as she realized a very small detail that she thought worth talking about.

"You know," she then said. "I know that this may seem like a pretty abrupt change of subject, and may not be at the most appropriate of times after what you just talked about, but mind if I tell you something?"

Aqualad nodded his head up and down. "Go ahead," said the Atlantean. "I'm all ears."

Terra chuckled, and then sighed in contentment as she looked peacefully at the river. "One reason I like to sit by this river is that, under the right conditions, it reminds me of a small underground stream further within the cave system I used to dwell in during the time in which I lived in the desert before meeting the Titans."

Aqualad nodded his head, though his face clearly showed confusion. "Ok then . . ." he then said.

Terra, sensing what the Atlantean was about to ask, smiled happily, and then responded, "Every day, whenever I'd had a bad day or at the very least just needed a chance to relax and calm myself down, I would always go down deep within the tunnels and sit by that stream. And every time I sat by that stream, I always, without fail, was able to calm down and relax. I don't know how; maybe it was just how clear the water was, or maybe it was the soothing noise that the water made as it trickled its way through its path. But whatever the reason was, I always felt at peace whenever I sat by that stream." She looked back towards the river, smile still on her face. "Like I said, this river reminds me of that stream." Her smile widened. "In fact, now that I think about it, quite a large amount of times I've ever felt the need to calm down and relax, I've spent time sitting by water. Starting with that stream in the caves, then the ocean around Titans Tower, and now this river. Water just seems to have that kind of effect on me I guess."

Aqualad thought to himself, and then smiled. He now had an idea that could help Terra potentially feel even happier. "Well that's certainly nice to hear," he then said. "Now that I think about it, why don't I show you a little trick."

This piqued Terra's interest. "Trick?" she asked in curiosity. "What kind of trick?"

Aqualad chuckled. "Let me show you." He waved his hands upward, and water from the river seemingly began to rise in the air. Terra's eyes had just widened in stunned awe at the unexpected rising water when the water in question started to evaporate, and then just as abruptly condense into mist. Before long, a massive amount of mist had formed directly above the river to the point that the bottom of it was still touching the exact surface of the water. And in that instant, as Aqualad continued to focus on keeping the mist intact, the sunlight shined upon the mist and created a fantastic looking rainbow. Terra's eyes widened further, and her jaw dropped as she gaped in genuine excitement and wonder at the display.

"Wow," she said quietly, to overjoyed and filled with enthusiasm at the spectacle to be loud. "That's . . . beautiful."

Aqualad chuckled, and nodded his head. "I know. And thanks." He looked back at the mass of mist with the rainbow. "Bet this makes you feel even better doesn't it?" he then asked with a smile still on his face.

Terra nodded, a warm smile on her face. "You got that right."

Aqualad chuckled, and then lowered his hands. The mist condensed completely back into liquid at the same time, the rainbow vanishing in the process.

Terra pretended to pout for dramatic effect. "Ah," she then said. "I liked that rainbow."

Aqualad snickered at Terra's pretend sadness, and shook his head side to side. "You know, when you're pretending to be sad, you really have higher success in making yourself look cute then in making people feel sorry for you."

Terra briefly glared, but then found herself smiling and blushing as she realized just what Aqualad had said. Aqualad chuckled at the sight of this reaction, turned his head to look back in the direction of the exit to the area where the river was located, and then said, "Well, I guess now's about as good a time as any for us to return to where the rest of the Titans are. I'm sure they've probably gotten Beast Boy back on his feet by now already, and they probably wouldn't mind having some time to talk with you either. And depending on how long it's been since then if that has in fact happened, we may very well have probably kept them all waiting long enough."

Terra sighed, and hung her head. "I guess so," she reluctantly agreed.

Aqualad placed his hand back on her shoulder. "Don't worry Terra," he then said when the blonde former geomancer turned her head to look at him. "Whatever happens, I'll be there for you. It's the least I can do."

Terra thought to herself, and then smiled at the genuine sincerity in Aqualad's words. "In that case, I guess we'd best start on our way."

The two teens smiled at each other, and then turned themselves around to face the exit back into the forest proper before then sliding themselves off the rock and back onto their feet. Aqualad looked over at Terra. "Shall we be off?" he then asked strictly for the sake of formality.

Terra smiled, and nodded her head to indicate 'yes'. Aqualad grinned, turned his head back to the exit, and started making his way over to it, Terra following not too far behind. But then, right as she was about a couple of footsteps away, Terra tripped and fell towards the ground with a small shriek. . . only to then have her fall halted when Aqualad swiftly turned around and caught her.

Terra gaped up at the Atlantean in shock, both stunned at how fast Aqualad had reacted and charmed at his gentlemanly behavior. Aqualad, seemingly oblivious to the look on Terra's face, simply responded, "Are you ok?"

The question briefly failed to register with Terra. But then she finally managed to hear what Aqualad had asked, and she nodded. "Yep, I'm good. Sorry."

"It's fine," Aqualad responded, and he helped Terra resume a steady position before then turning around.

But then, as the Atlantean was starting to walk away again, Terra placed her hand on his shoulder from behind as if asking him to stop. Aqualad turned around, briefly looking confused.

Terra smiled, hung her head with a small blush on her face, and then looked back up at Aqualad with a sincerely grateful look on her face. "Thank you," she then said. "For being here for me; and for being a good friend."

Aqualad was briefly taken aback, stunned by this quite strongly heartfelt offering of thanks, and he tilted his head to the side with a small look of embarrassment on his face. "Well hey," he then said in a slightly nervous tone. "That's just the way I am; you know?"

But Terra wasn't going to have that kind of attitude, and she promptly proceeded to clasp onto Aqualad's left hand in both of her own. Aqualad gaped towards her with a stunned look now on his face. Terra calmly stared at the stunned Atlantean with an almost adoring look on her face. "I mean it Aqualad," she then said. "I truly am thankful. Throughout these last few days alone, and especially over the course of the time we've now spent here at this river together, you've been a far better friend to me than I ever was to you or the other Titans; in fact, you've been a far greater friend to me than I frankly deserved to have after all that I've done in the past. Believe me Aqualad, I couldn't have possibly wished for a better friend, and I am truly glad to have you as my companion."

Aqualad gulped, touched by what Terra had now said. He hung his head, a small blush now on his own face. "In that case . . . you're welcome."

Terra smiled, both happy that Aqualad had now truly accepted her heartfelt gift of thanks but also slightly amused at how he'd been unable to find anything better to say in response to her more heartfelt explanation behind her thanks, and then she lifted her left hand off of Aqualad's. But she notably made sure to allow her right hand to remain locked in position around Aqualad's left hand. Aqualad noticed this, and briefly directed a confused look towards her. Terra only smiled, shook her head side to side and sending her gleaming golden hair billowing elegantly around. In that moment, Aqualad found himself smiling happily, for the action reminded him of how Tula had once done similar motions in her childhood before having her hair cut short at around the time she turned 11.

Then Terra stopped shaking her head, and looked back at Aqualad. "Shall we go back now?"

Aqualad was quite effectively snapped out of his reverie when he heard this, and he took a few seconds to remember what he and Terra had originally been doing. "Oh yes, of course." He looked into the forest, then back at Terra, and gestured with his hand towards the interior of the wooded area. "Let us be off."

Terra smiled, and with their hands still clasped together, the two teens stepped forward into the woods and started making their way back to where the rest of the Titans had been gathered before the unpleasant argument from earlier had occurred. As they walked, Aqualad briefly turned his head to look at Terra once more. "It's Garth by the way.

Terra turned her head to look at Aqualad with a look of confusion, and stopped walking in the process. "What?"

"My name," Aqualad explained. "My real name. It's Garth."

Terra thought to herself. "Garth," she then said softly to herself. She smiled. "That's . . . that's a really nice name."

"Thanks," Aqualad replied.

Terra chuckled. "You're welcome. Though, if I may, why did you tell me that just now?"

"The way I see it," Aqualad responded, "you've earned the right to know. After all, I've trusted you with all that stuff about Kaldur and Tula, and plus you've labeled me as such a great friend. You deserve to know that little detail about me."

Terra thought to herself, and then smiled warmly, touched by this strong display of good faith.

"In that case," said Terra. "Thank you." She turned her head to face the direction she and Aqualad were traveling in, and then back at the Atlantean with her wide smile and look of adoration back on her face. "Come on Garth. It's time we returned to where the rest of our friends are waiting. We wouldn't want to keep them waiting now would we?"

Aqualad chuckled, and then nodded. "As you wish my lady."

Terra chuckled, shook her head side to side, and then looked back towards the direction of the clearing. "Let's go Garth." And with that statement made, the Atlantean and half Markovian resumed their confident trek back to where the other Titans were.

 **And there you have it everyone! The newest chapter finished and posted! Here's to hoping you read, enjoyed, and will leave plenty of feedback/reviews! And unlike the last chapter, I actually feel pretty proud of myself how both the chapter as a whole AND the chapter's ending turned out! I really enjoyed writing all this interaction between Aqualad and Terra, particularly since there seems to be such low amounts at times of fanfiction that gives this particular pairing the acknowledgement that it deserves (in my personal opinion), and I feel really proud of myself for upholding this ship's honor with this chapter. And while we're at it, yes, Tula and Kaldur are officially canon in my take on the Teen Titans cartoon universe. And yes, what I had happen between Tula and Kaldur and Garth in that little bit of backstory here is different from Young Justice. And on that note, those particular elements (especially those involving Tula and Kaldur being romantically involved as well as the element of Kaldur being 'killed off' by Trident) were borrowed from esteemed fellow Teen Titans FanFiction author TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne's epic Teen Titans/Young Justice crossover Birds of a Feather. And with that being said, I once again sincerely hope you guys enjoyed this new chapter and leave plenty of feedback! But please don't forget to leave some feedback for the previous chapter I posted before this one as well! I really could use some in that regard! And with that being said, A-LionGleek out to let you enjoy and leave your feedback!**

 **Coming up next: The very next day, with both Beast Boy and Terra back on their feet and cheered up, things are seemingly going to be back on a relatively peaceful ground amongst the Titans, Aqualad, and Terra. However, things are about to get quite literally shaken up when Geo-Force decides to crash the party to provide some incentive to hurry up in making their decision on whether or not they will give Aqualad up willingly without him having to resort to maiming or similarly damaging the captive members of Titans East. And in the process of the resulting battle that unfolds, Terra manages to uncover a stunning piece of information that may yet shake her confidence down to its very core.**


	12. The Revelation

**And here, my friends, is a new chapter! Here's to hoping you read, review, and enjoy! In this chapter, while things have thankfully smoothed out among the Titans in regard to Terra and Beast Boy, there problems involving this mission are far from over. In fact, things are about to get shaken up extra good when Geo-Force decides to crash the party. And to shake things up even more, in the battle that ensues as a result, Terra finds herself exposed to a stunning revelation that leaves her shaken to her core. Sound exciting? I certainly hope so!**

 **A/N: Just to make sure my legal bases are covered, I do not own Teen Titans, or anything else you may recognize from actual DC media. Got it? Good. Onward with the fic!**

 **Chapter 11:**

 **The Revelation**

Later that evening, long after nightfall, and on the front-most shoreline of the island where Titans Tower East was located, Geo-Force found himself sitting cross-legged on the sand, listening intently as the small earthen pterosaur he'd earlier constructed three days prior told him everything it had witnessed and managed to gather in regard to the Titans and their compatriots. And while all the information the creature had to offer was indeed quite useful, there was one detail in particular that left Geo-Force especially intrigued.

"You are certain of this?" the ginger haired geomancer asked. He had to be absolutely certain.

The earthen construct nodded its head, chirping in confirmation.

"Interesting," said Geo-Force, a smile now on his face. He started pacing around left to right as if considering the information. "So you're saying that in spite of her having had prior history with the shape shifter, she appears to be especially close now to the Atlantean?"

The construct nodded once more, and then uttered a series of small clicking noises from its beak. Geo-Force's eyes widened in surprise at the sound of what he heard telepathically alongside those clicks.

"They're even on a mutual first name basis?" he asked.

The construct nodded again, even chirping in a tone that sounded insistent.

"I see."

The geomancer thought to himself, carefully considering every bit of the information he'd now been provided, memorizing every detail and likewise putting careful thought into how useful the intel could prove to be. Then he smiled. Already he was beginning to think of a brand new idea as a direct result of having obtained this new information from his scout. Then he decided to ask one more question. "Are you perhaps able to tell me what their names actually are? By that, meaning their hidden civilian identities as opposed to their hero identities?"

The construct nodded its head, and then chirped at its master as if adding onto its earlier confirmation.

"Garth huh?" Geo-Force thought to himself. "Interesting name. And what about the girl?"

The construct nodded once more, and then squawked. However, at the sound of the name that Geo-Force heard his creation state in its telepathic response that accompanied the squawk, his eyes widened. "Could you say that name again?"

The construct promptly complied, even squawking in the exact fashion as it had the first time it had said the name. With his suspicions confirmed as to what the construct had said, Geo-Force thought to himself once more.

"So," he said aloud. "Her name is Terra." He then frowned as if he was now concentrating. "Odd," he then whispered to himself. "That name sounds strangely familiar to me for some reason. But why?" He thought long and hard on the matter. Truth be told, the strange familiarity he now felt towards the name was now only strengthening the way he'd been feeling three days ago upon catching glimpse of the girl after his epic defeat at Steel City proper. He was now almost certain that, in spite of his master neither confirming nor denying such suspicions, he in fact had met this girl before and actually knew her quite well. But if that were the case, then why couldn't he remember? And for that matter, who was this girl?

Then he shook his head side to side to clear his head. He could worry about the matter later. After all, right now, he had more important things to worry about. For starters, he had a pretty good feeling that he'd now left his construct waiting long enough. He turned his head to face the creature. "Very well then," said Geo-Force. "You have served me well, and this information should prove quite invaluable. You are dismissed."

The construct had just enough time to spread its wings, bow its head, and even let out a small chortling squawk that sounded to non-telepathic ears as if it were thanking its master (and in fact the construct was indeed telepathically thanking its master at that moment) before the yellow light faded from the cracks serving as eyes and the creature crumbled back into sand and stone. Geo-Force nodded to himself, turned around, and started making his way back to his small cave hideout located behind the Titans East tower. And as he got closer to his newly chosen destination, he found a wide smile of glee coming onto his face as he thought once again about how very useful the information he'd been given would soon turn out to be. Already he had thought up a perfect new idea. "It's high time I gave the Atlantean and the Titans some incentive to hurry up in their decision making," he said aloud to himself. His smile widened, making his grin even more unnervingly wolf-like in the process. "And I know just the way to push the Atlantean in the right direction."

. . . . .

At around 12:00 pm the very next day, Terra couldn't help but smile as she happily drew in the dirt at the Titans' campsite. Much as she had hoped, and Aqualad had predicted, things had turned out alright in the end upon meeting back up with the rest of the Titans the previous day. Like Aqualad had predicted, Beast Boy had already been successfully propped back up on his feet by the time she and Aqualad had finished their own little pep talk meeting. And by the time all seven of them had been back in the clearing where the whole unpleasant mess had occurred, the other Titans had been too exhausted from undergoing said incident as well as relieved at how things had been successfully smoothed over early on in the midst of the aftermath to really be all that angry over the matter anymore. And now, as of the current moment, Terra was confident that perhaps maybe she in fact hadn't ruined her chances of restoring true friendship with the rest of her former team mates beyond hope. Granted, Beast Boy still hadn't yet really said a single word directly to her yet. But Terra didn't mind that little detail any more. After all, she was quite certain that Aqualad's advice from the previous day would be very much worth following. And besides, since Beast Boy currently seemed neither enjoying her presence nor actively protesting against it, she was confident that perhaps the changeling was at least tolerating her for the moment. And the way she saw it, she was perfectly glad to at least be tolerated by Beast Boy for the time being.

Terra sighed in contentment, her eyes closed as she thought of how very lucky she'd now turned out to be. "It seems there truly is still hope for me," she thought to herself.

"Friend Terra, may I ask what it is you are currently up to?"

Terra smiled, opened her eyes, and turned her head to look behind her to see none other than Starfire standing right there with a curious look on her face. "Not at all," replied the blonde. "Come on over."

Starfire made her way over to Terra, smiling happily at how happy Terra appeared to be. She came to a stop directly at Terra's left and sat down next to her in the same cross-legged style in which the former geomancer was currently positioned. She looked carefully at the area where Terra was scratching at the dirt with the stick in her hands. "May I ask what it is you are drawing?" Starfire asked.

Terra chuckled happily. "Oh nothing really," Terra replied. "Just doodling really." Soon after saying this, Terra withdrew her stick away from the drawing, allowing Starfire to get a good clear look at the portrait. The drawing in question turned out to be of a small castle in a small field filled with flowers and trees with a massive row of mountains positioned behind the castle and the foliage.

Starfire looked carefully at the drawing, smiling at the beauty of the portrait. "That is a very wondrous picture friend," said the Tamaranean. Then her eyes widened in delight as she thought of another good detail she believed worth asking. "Would this perhaps be a portrait of the Royal Castle in Markovia?"

Terra whipped her head and gaped at Starfire, eyes widened in surprise. "Actually . . . yes," said Terra. She looked back at the drawing, then back at her friend. "How did you know?"

"I didn't," said Starfire. "It was the lucky guess."

"I'll say."

Starfire and Terra looked behind them upon hearing this unexpected other voice behind them, and were pleasantly surprised at the sight of none other than Raven standing right there. "Raven," said Terra, clearly pleasantly surprised at the Azarathian's presence. "What are you doing here?"

Raven made a small nervous smile. "I'm sure you were probably expecting me to be talking things out with the boys, or at least spending more quality time with Beast Boy perhaps?"

Terra winced at the small reminder of the previous day's unpleasant confrontation between her and Beast Boy. "Look Raven, I really am sorry about all that . . ."

Raven shook her head, gesturing her hand forward as if to say that she understood and was ok with it. "I know," she then said, confirming Terra's thoughts. She looked straight back at Terra once more. "But nonetheless, Beast Boy and I did have one more little talk before we went to sleep last night, and we both decided that it might be best for us to spend a tiny bit less time directly in each other's company today, just in case. We thought that it might help for each of us to let you work on restoring your individual friendships with the two of us before allowing you to continue to be exposed to the sight of us spending so much quality time together."

Terra was stunned at this news. "Wow," she thought to herself. "They must really be willing to make an effort at helping patch thing up between them and me if they're willing to go this far." Starfire, meanwhile, was smiling joyously. It now seemed clear that perhaps things would truly work out happily for Terra in the end in regard to repairing her damaged friendships with the Titans.

"I see." Terra nodded. "Thanks."

Raven nodded her own head. "No problem." She then took a seat to Terra's right and looked down at the drawing in the dirt. "Is that really what it looks like?"

Terra smiled in half joy and half nervousness. For while she was very glad that Raven was actively working to help patch things up between them, Terra was also quite certain that Raven would have preferred spending her time in other ways and was only taking part in her current activities strictly for Terra's benefit. "Sort of," Terra admitted. "There's still a few details I have to add. But yeah, apart from those minor little bits and pieces, this is more or less carbon copies of the castle and the immediate area around it."

"Interesting," said Raven.

Terra smiled, but this time with complete happiness on her face. "Glad you think so," she then stated.

Meanwhile, down at the opposite end of the clearing where the Titans' campsite was situated, the boys were sitting in a circular formation and discussing tactics and potential plans for rescuing the other Titans East members and taking on Geo-Force. And at the moment, Aqualad had to admit that Robin certainly hadn't been kidding when he'd commented in the previous day's meeting that he and the other Titans had in fact been making progress in thinking up a plan.

"As you probably remember," said Cyborg. "I was instrumental in helping you and the others design the Titans East Tower. And that being said, I still have a copy of the schematics and what not right here." He pressed a few keys on one of his arms, and a small screen was revealed that then lit up to reveal an image of the blueprints in question. "As you can see," Cyborg continued as he let Aqualad and the other two boys take a look at the blueprints, "these blueprints will prove a very useful map for us to use since we are not currently capable of going inside the tower itself to try to guess our way around."

"Such would be the sentiment," said Aqualad. He looked up from the image. "But as you may have noticed, Geo-Force currently has the tower almost completely encased in rock, and I highly doubt that he left the interior untouched. So for all we know, this map may yet prove untrustworthy."

"Indeed so it might," Cyborg agreed. "Which makes the miniature surveillance drones I've been sending to conduct recon missions over the last few days extra valuable."

Robin nodded in agreement and drew out a small stack of papers from under his cape. "Those drones, combined with Raven's covert visits in her soul self form have allowed us to form out what should be an accurate enough map of the way the Titans Tower East interior looks now that Geo-Force has remodeled it."

The Boy Wonder placed the papers down on the ground at the very center of their circle. Just one look at the paper on the very top was enough to convince the Atlantean that these papers were a collection of original blueprints pages from the Titans Tower East's construction modified to more accurately portray the way it currently looked on the inside after Geo-Force's redecorating.

Robin started carefully organizing the papers around in a way that Aqualad, Cyborg, and Beast Boy would be able to get a good look at as many of them at once as they could. As he did this, he proceeded to calmly explain, "By comparing the footage gathered by Cyborg's drones and Raven's memories of her little trips with Cyborg's original blueprints for the tower's construction, we've managed to more or less draw out what should more or less be a pretty decent rough draft of how the tower now looks and should allow us to be able to have a somewhat easier time finding our way through when we inevitably go inside to find the rest of Titans East."

Beast Boy nodded, and pointed at each of the papers one by one. "As you can see," the shapeshifter began, the only area of the tower that we were don't have an alternate blueprints map for is the basement. Turns out, the basement was the only place that Raven wasn't able to enter. Somehow or other, the entrance has been modified with some sort of security measure that prevents her from entering while in her soul self form. And this same security measure, whatever it is, is also sufficient enough to block out Cyborg's drones. That, combined with the fact that every single other area of the tower has always been empty of people apart from Cheshire and on the rare occasion Geo-Force himself, leads us to believe that the basement is where the rest of Titans East is being held."

Aqualad thought to himself, and then nodded. "That does sound logical," he agreed. He looked back at his three friends. "With this security measure in place capable of preventing both Cyborg's microscopic drones _and_ Raven's soul-self from entering through the door, combined with how very risky it could be for us to attempt to actually go into the upper areas of the tower itself, would it be possible for us to somehow dig our way into the basement?"

But Cyborg was already shaking his head. "No can do man," said the half robot. "The walls are made out of an extra tough titanium alloy. Even with all we've got available in our repertoire, drilling our way through those walls and into the basement would be pretty darn difficult, if not impossible. And even if we do have sufficient means with which to cut our way through that kind of barrier, we still can't risk it."

"Cyborg's right," said Beast Boy. "Digging our way into the basement? Too ineffectual, and too time consuming. Counting today, we've only got two days to rescue your team mates before Geo-Force resorts to extreme measures. And we still don't even know when his master's supposed to arrive. There's no animal I know of that can dig that much that fast, and I'm sure that regardless how quickly some of the methods Robin, Cyborg, and the girls could have at their possible could work, they'd also be way too noisy for our own good. Geo-Force is right there on the island with the rest of Titans East, and so is Cheshire. There's no way we could do any digging, let alone make progress in that kind of fashion without them hearing it. Not to mention the fact that we'd have a hell of a time trying to hide it, and that's being optimistic considering the fact that Geo-Force is a geomancer. With his powers, he'd probably be able to erase any progress we made with a snap of his fingers."

"Indeed," said Robin. "And not only that, but we'd be out in the open right there on the island. We'd have nowhere to hide, and practically zero time whatsoever to get away in the event we'd need to make an escape. I appreciate your effort Aqualad, but there's too much that could go wrong with an attempt at digging our way into the basement."

Aqualad nodded his head up and down. "Understood." He looked over at Cyborg. "Is there anything else that you've gathered that could be useful. Since it has been proven clear that we will have to make our way to the basement through the tower itself, any additional information you have could prove useful."

Cyborg nodded in the affirmative. "I've found out where Geo-Force has stationed his hideout."

Aqualad leaned forward, clearly interested in this news. "Where?"

Cyborg lifted up his hand and pointed at Aqualad, "Ok, but listen, you have no idea how lucky Raven and I were to be able to get ahold of this information without getting caught." He then pointed at an area on the one paper that showed a full schematic view of the entire tower. "From what we've managed to gather through my drones and Raven's soul self visits, Geo-Force has set up a small cave in the area directly behind the tower, and that cave is currently serving as his lair and base of operations. And speaking of which, we've also noticed that Cheshire has set up camp in what's left of the common room."

Aqualad considered the information. "Duly noted," he then said. "So, how do we get in?"

"We're still working on that," said Robin as he rolled all the papers back up into scroll-like formats and slipped them into an appropriate container before placing the container back into his utility belt. He looked directly at his Atlantean team mate's face. "As we've all noticed, Geo-Force has the entire Titans East tower almost completely encased in God knows how many layers of stone. He's even managed to block off the underwater entrance you use to enter and exit the tower when going for a swim. The only parts that aren't covered up are the roof and a small portion of all the windows and panels at the very top of the tower. So in other words, we're certainly not entering through the front door."

"Of course," said Aqualad. "When is it ever that easy?" he asked to himself under his breath. Then the Atlantean thought of one other little detail. "Couldn't Raven just summon a portal for us to use to enter the tower?"

"I'm afraid it won't be that simple," said Robin.

"Why?"

Robin looked over at Cyborg, who accessed another file from where he'd stored the footage gathered by the drones. He extended his arm to allow Aqualad to get a look at the image he'd just opened up, which appeared to be of some sort of yellow diamond-like crystal sticking out of a small ring of stone. "According to Raven," Cyborg explained, "this crystal oddity is designed to serve as a means of detecting portals. Whenever a portal appears within the presence of one of these things, it glows brightly as if at the flip of a light switch. And from what Raven's managed to gather through her soul self visits, there's apparently quite a large number of them scattered through various areas throughout the entire inside of the tower, and don't ask me how Geo-Force managed to get ahold of them all."

"So there's a bunch of them." Aqualad shrugged his shoulders as if not seeing any problem. "It should be easy enough for us to find a place where could safely enter through portal without getting discovered. After all, it shouldn't be too hard to avoid capture in such a manner with only Geo-Force and Cheshire present, not to mention the fact that, from what Raven said, Geo-Force rarely ever goes inside the tower himself anymore. And with that in mind, I'm sure Raven could easily knock out Cheshire somehow and get her out of the way to prevent her from interfering."

"That's what we thought at first as well," said Robin. He looked over at Cyborg, who opened up a new file. And this time, the contents of the file were images of what appeared to be a wolf, vulture, and snake made entirely out of rocks. "At some point or other, Geo-Force summoned these three constructs to provide additional security. And as if that doesn't make things difficult enough, he appears to have trained them to sound the alarm on sight of a glowing portal sensing crystal, and no, it won't matter whether or not we manage to portal our way into an area where neither Geo-Force, Cheshire, nor any of these three constructs are present. Because any time one single portal sensing crystal lightens up, all others in the same relative location as the first one start glowing as well."

Aqualad gulped. "I see." He thought to himself. "And I'm guessing, since we haven't been able to access the basement through covert means, it would be wise to assume that it would likewise be a bad idea to try to have a portal summoned to go straight to the basement?"

"Exactly. Therefore, our best bet is to somehow enter through the roof."

Robin looked over at Cyborg. Cyborg nodded. "As we've already mentioned," said the bionic teenager, "Geo-Force always leaves the roof and a small top portion of all the windows and panels at the very top of the tower uncovered."

"However," said Beast Boy. "Due to how small said portion of those windows and panels are, Raven and I are the only ones who can fit through them. And between the two of us, Raven's the only who can fit through that way without having to break one of the windows or panels; and frankly, we'd prefer to try to avoid having anyone inside the tower alone in the current circumstances."

Aqualad nodded in agreement. "Understandable." He looked over at Cyborg. "I remember there being a rooftop entrance at your Tower. Isn't there also a similar such entrance on the roof of Titans East Tower?"

"Yes there is," Cyborg confirmed. "However, Geo-Force appears to be aware of this as well. For as can be clearly seen from even all the way out here, the exact area that the rooftop entrance is located at is the only area of the roof that Geo-Force has covered up with the layers of rock that he's encased the majority of your tower in. And he's really made it obvious to by fashioning that particular segment of covering in the shape of a miniature mountain. The only times he ever removes it are whenever he or Cheshire need to exit or enter the tower for any reason. And he always makes sure to instantly restore the covering as soon as whoever needs to use that door have entered or exited."

"So in other words, we'd need to somehow remove the covering ourselves."

"Exactly."

"But unfortunately," Robin broke in. "Even that task will be easier said than done. For the sake of the captives' safety as well as our own, we want to try to get the rest of the Titans East members free and joined together with us before we do battle with Geo-Force and Cheshire; and to do that, we'd need to be able to remove the blockage from the rooftop entrance without alerting Geo-Force, Cheshire, or the constructs that Geo-Force has summoned. And every means of getting rid of the obstruction that Cyborg, Beast Boy, and the girls have at their disposal is either too noisy, gives off too much light, or both."

"What about you?" asked Aqualad.

"There is one method I have that would fit the bill in regard to noise or light," Robin admitted. He drew out one of his flame-thrower pen gadgets. "I could always set one of these to welding mode and use it to melt it down. But even though I would be able to remove the covering quietly and without giving off too much light this way, even at maximum heat, this method would still take too long. With how little time we have left, we need to complete this mission fast, and it could take hours for me to melt down that covering with this gadget."

Aqualad pinched his nose, groaning in irritation. "There's gotta be some way we can get in there that Geo-Force hasn't thought of."

"I know," Robin groaned. The Boy Wonder sighed, and shook his head side to side. "Look Aqualad, I know we're running short on time. And believe me, we're all working as fast, and as hard, as we can to come up with something. But there's still so many obstacles to take into consideration."

"I know." Aqualad sighed. "But even so, there's gotta be something that we haven't considered that could work."

"I'm sure there is Aqualad," Cyborg agreed. "But whatever it is, we haven't found it yet."

"Yeah no kidding," said Robin. The Boy Wonder sighed once more. "Maybe we should take a quick break. Limited on time as we are, we won't be making any progress if we keep working ourselves up over this while stressed out. We can resume our discussion later after we've had some time to relax somewhat."

"If you say so," said Aqualad.

"Good," said Robin. He slipped his fire stick gadget back into his utility belt. "At this time, meeting's adjourned. Now let's go. . ."

However, as Robin was saying this, he happened to look towards Beast Boy just in time to see that the changeling had tensed up in a crouching position, had his head tilted as if he were directing his ears upward to his left, and had a small silent mixture between a glare and a snarl on his face. The sight of all this was enough to cause Robin to pause in his speech. Cyborg and Aqualad briefly raised their eyebrows in confusion at their fearless leader's abrupt cessation in his speaking. But then they noticed the direction the Boy Wonder was looking in, and turned their heads in Beast Boy's direction as well.

"Beast Boy?" Cyborg asked, clearly concerned. "Are you alright?"

Beast Boy hissed at Cyborg as if trying to shush him.

Cyborg glared. "Don't you shush me. . ."

Beast Boy hissed at Cyborg again, louder this time. "Listen."

"To what?" asked Aqualad. "I don't hear anything. . ."

"Shush!" Beast Boy snarled. He turned his head back to its earlier position, his eyes narrowing further as he continued to listen to whatever sound he currently claimed to be hearing that neither of the other three boys had managed to notice. "I definitely hear something alright," said Beast Boy, seemingly to himself. "It sounds like a small whooshing noise, like a jet plane or gust of wind, only stockier and heavier for some reason."

Almost as if hearing Beast Boy's description had suddenly granted them the ability to hear it as well, Robin, Cyborg, and Aqualad soon found themselves hearing a very small and almost whisper-like noise that somewhat fit the description Beast Boy had just given. But as low in volume as the noise currently was, they also couldn't help but notice it start to seemingly increase in volume. "It's getting a little louder," said Beast Boy, confirming that he too had noticed the gradual increase in volume.

Aqualad shook his head side to side, a bemused smile on his face as he thought in amazement at how Beast Boy had managed to hear this noise long before he, Robin, or Cyborg had heard it themselves. He looked over at Robin. "How does he do that . . .?"

"Shh," said Robin, who then pointed at Beast Boy. Aqualad looked over at Beast Boy, and then silently gulped as he noticed that Beast Boy had, if it was even possible, gotten even more tensed up, and was now seeming to sniff at the air in the direction he was hearing the noise coming from.

Beast Boy made a couple more sniffing noises. "Ok, I'm definitely still hearing that noise, but now I'm also smelling something." His eyes narrowed once more as he concentrated on the scent he'd just now detected. "It smells like . . ." His eyes narrowed even further. "Dust . . . stones . . . pine trees . . ."

Meanwhile, the girls had also noticed what was going on and overheard what Beast Boy was saying. But while Starfire and Raven currently appeared more curious than anything else, Terra was very clearly starting to look nervous, for she'd heard that very same description that Beast Boy had just applied to whatever it was he was smelling used to describe herself by multiple people in her lifetime. And she had a bad feeling that due to both the fact that the wind was blowing towards her combined with the fact that Beast Boy wasn't looking completely in her direction, there was only one reason that he'd be smelling that kind of scent at the moment, and it was not at all a comforting possibility to be thinking about.

"Girls," said Terra. Starfire and Raven turned their heads to face Terra. "I have a bad feeling about this."

Then Beast Boy's eyes narrowed once more, and he took yet another sniff. "And . . . mountain air," he then said. Seconds after he said that though, his facial expression took on a notably nervous look, and with each phrase he said immediately afterward, his facial expression clearly showed that he was beginning to become even more nervous than he already was. "And it's getting stronger . . . and louder . . . and faster . . ." The other boys, plus the girls managed to notice the change in the noise as well, and they too became nervous. Beast Boy's next words, and resulting facial expression changes, did not help to alleviate their fear. "It's coming from up in the sky . . . somewhat behind me . . . and it's . . ."

Beast Boy turned his head to look in the sky directly behind him, and his eyes widened in horror as he finally got a full glimpse of just what was now rocketing straight towards him and the other Titans. "Coming right towards us," he then shrieked before he then lunged straight at Aqualad. "Look out!"

At the same time Beast Boy shouted, he turned into a tiger and pounded into Aqualad, sending him flying backwards. Starfire and Raven also reacted at the same time, and there was just enough time for Starfire to grab Robin by the shoulders and start flying back towards Terra as well as for Raven to summon a shadowy tendril to yank Cyborg away in the same direction before they were all sent flying by the impact produced when none other than Geo-Force landed on his feet straight in the center of the area that the Titan boys had been seated around and slammed both of his fists down on the ground for good measure. All seven of the teenagers came to a hard landing on their backs, stomachs, or backsides. And when they all managed to regain their bearings and gape in both surprise and horror at the sight of Geo-Force now being present in their campsite, the geomancer grinned smugly towards them, his blue eyes agleam with triumph. "Surprise!"

. . . . .

For a brief few seconds, complete silence hung in the air; the seven teens all being far too stunned to say anything in response to the earthshakingly unexpected guest in their campsite. Then Robin managed to snap back to attention, and his eyes narrowed. "Geo-Force," he growled, his body already tensing itself up into a position that would allow him to easily flip back onto his feet. "I see you decided to drop by."

Geo-Force chuckled. "That I did." He placed his fists on his hips and likewise positioned himself as if expecting a medal. "And I can see I picked a good time to; from what I saw, you clearly appeared to be in a meeting of some sort, and I doubt I'd need to be a genius to understand exactly what it is you were discussing."

Robin mentally growled, but Cyborg was the next to comment. "Well good thing we'd already finished before you got here!" Slamming his right fist on the ground, the cyborg pushed himself back onto his feet and glared at the geomancer. "And for that matter, I highly doubt you came all this way and went to the trouble of searching for us just to interrupt a meeting that you couldn't possibly have been aware of before arriving here!"

"Debatable, but correct," Geo-Force admitted. He then delivered a withering glare of his own towards Cyborg and the other six teens that made Aqualad involuntarily gulp. Clearly, the geomancer meant business. "To make a long story short," Geo-Force began, "I'm getting a little tired of waiting. And that being said, with the rate you're all currently going, I thought it was about high time I paid a little visit and give you a little incentive to hurry up in your decision making." He directed his gaze directly at Aqualad. "Namely," he then clarified, "your decision as to whether or not you'd willingly give yourself up without having to force me to take extreme measures."

Aqualad's eyes narrowed, clearly not happy at receiving the unpleasant reminder of the threat hanging over the heads of his team mates. "By Neptune's beard," he growled. "If you hurt them in any way, I swear . . ."

"Oh don't you worry," said Geo-Force. "The archer and the speedster twins are perfectly unharmed. The insect girl, however, I was forced to make a few temporary modifications to her, but those should be perfectly healed soon enough.

Aqualad snarled upon hearing this information.

"And while we're at it," Geo-Force continued, "might as well tell you this now, but I actually wasn't telling you the full truth when I made that threat after our battle at Steel City proper." He then grinned wolfishly. "Turns out, I won't be the one maiming your team mates if you fail to arrive by the day after tomorrow. On that day, at exactly 12:00 noon, my master arrives; and at that point, I will be dismissed elsewhere and your teammates will be left to his mercy. And believe me, considering what _he's_ capable of inflicting upon them, you'll _wish_ that I was the one attending to them instead."

Aqualad only snarled in anger, but the eyes of Terra and the Jump City Titans widened at the sound of the new information regarding the geomancer's as of yet mysterious master.

"But enough of that," Geo-Force then snapped. Still glaring towards Aqualad, he then continued, "One way or another, you will come back to Titans Tower East and be placed under my custody in time for my master, and especially if you value what's truly important to you."

Aqualad growled. "You're gonna need to try harder than that to get me to come with you!"

"I had a feeling you'd say that," Geo-Force responded. With a snap of his fingers, the levitating rock he'd been riding on before his grand entrance went rocketing down towards the other Titans alongside four others that had been floating along behind it.

"Titans move!" Robin shouted before he and the rest of the Jump City Titans leaped and swooped in different directions to avoid getting smashed by the flying boulders, which exploded into dust upon contact with the ground.

Robin skidded to a stop in a crouching position, glared at Geo-Force, and then pointed at him before yelling, "Attack now!"

Starfire made the first move, shouting in exertion as she hurled star bolt after star bolt at Geo-Force. The geomancer, without even moving from the spot he was already standing at, caused a barrier of stones and dust to rise up in front of him to serve as a shield. In a brief lull in Starfire's volley, Geo-Force lowered his shield, summoned a small boulder with a stomp of his foot, and kicked it in the air straight towards Starfire. Starfire didn't get the chance to dodge, and the stone slammed into her stomach and sent her flying backward.

Geo-Force smirked upon sight of his attack successfully striking his target, but was forced to turn his attention away when he heard an angry yelling coming from right in front of him. He looked away from Starfire just in time to see a very pissed off looking Robin barreling towards him with his bo staff at the ready. The Boy Wonder swung the staff at Geo-Force the instant he got close enough, leaving Geo-Force no choice but to hurriedly dodge and duck as the angry caped crusader swung his weapon multiple times in various directions. Eventually, Geo-Force managed to put a stop to the momentary inconvenience by grabbing onto the bo staff right as Robin was starting to swing it again in a downwards direction and using the newfound grip and momentum to throw his attacker in the air over his head.

Only seconds after Geo-Force threw off Robin, he was blasted backwards by a blue sonic laser crashing into his chest. The geomancer landed on his back, and managed to get into a seated position in time to see Cyborg rushing towards him with his fist drawn back to punch at him. Geo-Force hurriedly lunged to his right, and Cyborg's fist harmlessly slammed on the ground. Cyborg hurriedly turned his head to face the direction Geo-Force had jumped just in time to see the ginger haired boy send a stream of dust flying towards him. Cyborg fired his sonic cannon, the resulting laser blasting right through the dust and dissipating it into nothing, leaving Geo-Force no choice but to raise a rock barrier to shield himself. As Geo-Force had hoped, the shield proved a perfect barrier against the sonic laser. No sooner had he lowered the barrier, however, when he was abruptly sent rocketing through the air upon getting hit point blank by a small missile that Cyborg had managed to fire.

When Geo-Force managed to get back on his feet after this attack, he noticed Cyborg barreling towards him once more. In a flash, the geomancer clapped his hands, resulting in two slabs of earthen material to rise up, one on either side of Cyborg, and slam together like the jaws of a crocodilian. When the two slabs lowered back down to the ground, they revealed a very scrunched up and almost passed out Cyborg, who managed to groan weakly before falling flat on his face.

Beast Boy attacked next, turning into a gorilla and charging towards the geomancer while letting out a savage series of hoots and shrieks of challenge. Geo-Force reacted as swiftly as a viper upon hearing the noises Beast Boy was making in his gorilla form, and he slammed his left fist down on the ground while facing the direction Beast Boy was heading towards him from, sending a line of stalagmites bursting from the ground in a straight line towards the shapeshifter. Beast Boy hurriedly turned into a pteranodon and flew over Geo-Force. The geomancer turned his head to look up towards the escaping pterosaur, only to then receive a blast to the head from a small orb of shadow energy, sending him briefly stumbling off balance.

Geo-Force recovered from the blow, growled, and turned around to face Raven, summoning and launching a small volley of boulders simultaneously. Raven hurriedly melted into the shadows of some nearby trees and dodged the attack. Geo-Force glared viciously at the area where Raven had been before disappearing, silently snarling as he waited for her to show herself again. But then he heard the sound of an unearthly squawking noise heading down towards him from behind, and he turned his head just in time to see Beast Boy the pteranodon hurtling towards him in an attempt at a dive bomb attack, morphing into a rhino right as he was several feet away from plowing into him.

Geo-Force, unfortunately, was still as fast as ever in his reaction time, and he managed to grab Beast Boy by the horn and swing him around in circles a few times before sending him flying away in the direction opposite the one in which the changeling had been attempting to dive bomb him. And for an added bonus on Geo-Force's part, the shapeshifter ended up crashing right into Cyborg, who had just managed to get back on his feet, resulting in both the shapeshifter and the half robot flying away. And as if to further add to Geo-Force's luck, Raven reappeared from her teleportation directly in their path, and thus got sent rocketing along with them when the two boys plowed right into her.

Even as Geo-Force still had his attention focused on Beast Boy, Raven, and Cyborg, Robin took the newfound opportunity to strike, and he hurled one of his explosive disks at the geomancer. The explosive crashed into Geo-Force's back, the resulting explosion sending him flying forward before landing flat on his face. Geo-Force had only just gotten onto his hands and knees and lifted his head up when he saw Starfire rocketing straight towards him. The geomancer barely even had a second to even realize that Starfire was there before she sent him rocketing into the air with a powerful punch straight to his jaw with her right hand. And even as Geo-Force was still hurtling up into the sky, Starfire still didn't give him any chance to recover, soaring straight up to the elevation where his ascent would end before then blasting him right in the chest with her eye beams literally seconds after he reached said elevation himself. As a result, Geo-Force was pushed rapidly downwards by the lasers to the point of landing very painfully on the ground on his back with a strong enough impact to create a small crater around his landing site.

Geo-Force managed to get into a seated position, only to find himself caught between a diving Starfire and a charging Robin. Panting in annoyance, Geo-Force hurriedly summoned a massive vortex of sand to start billowing in the area around him, leaving Robin and Starfire forced to come to a halt and close their eyes and mouths to avoid getting suffocated or blinded by the sand. Geo-Force, however, had no need to worry about getting blinded, for he had his goggles built into his mask. And so he grabbed Robin by the cape, pulled on it, and used it to throw Robin into the air, sending the Boy Wonder pounding into Starfire. Within seconds, the two teen heroes came crashing to the ground and skidding to a halt quite a yard or so away.

Geo-Force dismissed the vortex of sand, chuckling smugly at having managed to take out so many of his adversaries this time. He didn't even bother turning his head to look when he then summoned a glob of mud to shield himself from Aqualad's attempt at blindsiding him with a spout of water. Aqualad finally noticed this factor and ceased his attack when the mud shield had reached a sufficient size to cover him up to his neck, mentally cursing himself for having fallen for that trick all over again.

Sure enough, Geo-Force then said, "Second time you've fallen into this kind of trap, you must really be losing your edge." Then he sent the mud hurtling at Aqualad, leaving Aqualad pinned on the ground on his back by the mud, with the mud in question hardening seconds after Aqualad made contact with the ground. As the Atlantean squirmed and growled in his efforts to escape from the mud, Robin and the other Titans attempted to get up, only for Geo-Force to summon stony shackles to pin the down by their wrists and ankles. Aqualad saw this, however, and with an angry snarl, he caused a gigantic spout of water to erupt from directly underneath him, completely engulfing him and blasting the mud into nothing.

However, Aqualad's reaction soon turned out to be exactly what Geo-Force had been waiting for. For while the Atlantean was still engulfed in the watery geyser, his grin widened, and he said to himself, "Perfect. And now, it is time to deal with. . ." he abruptly turned his head to face Terra, who had been hiding in some nearby bushes. "You!" he then shouted.

Terra's eyes widened upon Geo-Force unexpectedly revealing that he'd known about where she was. Unfortunately, she didn't have time to react any further before she was sent flying by the impact produced from two stalagmite spears piercing through her shirt in the area directly covering her shoulders. The same two stalagmite spears piercing through her shoulder covers jabbed into a nearby oak tree, leaving Terra effectively pinned to the tree. Terra had just enough time to gasp from the impact against the tree before Geo-Force suddenly caused a third stalagmite spear to go flying towards her and come to a jarring halt nightmarishly close to the very center of her neck. As it was, Terra's eyes widened in horror, and she even let out a surprised gasp of fear at the sight of the wickedly sharp tip literally an inch or two away from her neck. Geo-Force's grin widened even further at the sight of Terra's terrified reaction. "This is working even better than I thought it would," he thought to himself.

Beast Boy was the first among the Jump City Titans to notice Terra's plight, and his eyes widened before he hurriedly prepared himself to transform into a snake so as to slip free from his restraints. But then, with a small flick of Geo-Force's left wrist, Beast Boy, Cyborg, and the girls suddenly heard Robin coughing and choking as if drowning on something. Horrified, they turned their heads in Robin's direction just in time to notice that Geo-Force had managed to summon a large puddle pit of mud as well as an earth-based arm made of dust that was now holding Robin's head under the mud. Then the dust arm abruptly let go and reared away, allowing Robin to snap his head out from under the mud, gasping for air. The other Titans were quite shocked and horrified by what they'd just witnessed, with Starfire in particular looking absolutely stricken and distraught.

"Consider that a warning Titans."

All five of the founding Titans turned to look at Geo-Force, who had a look on his face that silently screamed 'I mean it'. "As you can see, I'm not above killing you all. In fact, my master believes it better for you to die since there are colleagues he knows about who have already had horrid experience with attempts at getting you to join forces with them." The geomancer then extended the hand he'd used to summon the mud and dust arm back towards Robin, causing the dust arm to tense itself up as if about to push Robin's under the mud all over again. "However," he then continued, "you have especially good reason now to want to keep your leader safe at the current moment then you would have had any time before this past June. For as my master has informed me, 17 months from now, your leader has quite the eventful trip downstairs set up for him. And I highly doubt you'd want to take the risk of me sending him on his way early." Robin's fellow Titans looked each other in the eyes nervously, clearly knowing now that they were in serious trouble. Robin only narrowed his eyes angrily, but could nonetheless feel his heart sinking inside.

It was at that moment that Aqualad's geyser shut off, and he turned around to look towards Geo-Force, his hands stretched out towards him and at the ready for summoning more water. "Well I'm certainly not gonna let happen!" he then yelled. "I'm gonna take you down right here and now!"

Geo-Force chuckled, directing a sidelong glance towards the Atlantean from out of the corner of his eyes, and then relaxed his left arm before turning his head to directly face Aqualad. "I have a better idea," he then said. "We stop this craziness, have your friends stand down, and you come back to Titans Tower East alongside me and join your friends."

Aqualad snarled, gritting his teeth. "Not gonna happen!"

Geo-Force only smiled. "Let me rephrase that."

In a flash, he withdrew the stalagmite spear a couple feet, caused it to slightly shift position so that it was pointing a couple inches to the right of its original target, and _then_ sent it rocketing back, causing it to impale the bark covered area right next to Terra's neck with extreme prejudice. Terra flinched at the impact of the stalagmite, her eyes closing, and involuntarily letting out a shriek of fear.

Aqualad's eyes widened at the sound of the shriek. He had completely forgotten that Terra was even in the area. He turned his head to face the direction of where he knew that Terra had originally been hiding during the earlier battle, and found his heart sinking as the sight of Terra pinned up against the oak tree with a stalagmite spearing through the wooden surface next to her neck on the same tree she was pinned against only confirmed his fears.

Geo-Force smirked, withdrew the impaling stalagmite spear from its position next to Terra's neck, and then slowly moved it back into its original position, but this time with the tip now just lightly touching against the center of Terra's neck. "You will come with me willingly right this very moment," said Geo-Force. He then leaned his head forward, his eyes narrowing, and his voice taking on an ominously serious tone. "Or the civilian gets it."

Terra's eyes widened at the sight of the stalagmite spear up against her neck once more, and this time closer to impaling its way through her throat then it had been before. She looked towards Aqualad out of the corner of her eyes, her face silently screaming for him to do something. Aqualad mentally winced, and found himself looking out of the corner of his eyes in alternating fashion from Terra to Robin. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. "What am I going to do?" he thought to himself.

Geo-Force noticed Aqualad's clear indecision, and his grin widened in triumph. "Just give it up Atlantean," he purred. "You've already lost! At this point, the only thing you'll be saving by refusing is your pride! And Lord knows what good that will do for you when it ends up not only both killing your first group of friends and this innocent little girl, but also leads to your other set of friends getting forced to fight against you under my master's control! Either way, you'll end up joining them! So you might as well make it easier on you and less bloody right now!"

Aqualad slackened up, unclenched his fists, and hung his head in defeat. As much as he hated to admit it now, the geomancer was right. There was nothing he could do without getting his friends killed right then and there. "Stop," he said in a clearly defeated tone. "I'll do what you say."

Geo-Force's grin widened. "Excellent," he said. "I knew you'd see reason." Smiling still, he beckoned with his left hand for Aqualad to come. "Come on over here, right now."

Aqualad lifted up his own left hand with his finger raised as if asking for Geo-Force to wait. "First, you have to promise that you will let Terra and my other friends you have under your mercy in this area go free unharmed."

"Consider it done," said Geo-Force.

But Aqualad was already shaking his head. "That was way too fast. Swear it on an unbreakable vow."

"Oh come on!"

"Well it's not like you have anything to lose by doing so!"

"Oh fine! I swear by the roots of the mightiest mountain in Markovia that your friends here will be released alive and unharmed when you come with me! There, happy now?"

Aqualad took a deep breath, exhaled, and then nodded his head. "Perfect." He then looked up, opened his eyes, and then slowly started to step forward towards Geo-Force.

As the Atlantean made his way towards Geo-Force, with Terra and the other Titans having no other choice but to watch, Geo-Force found his earlier smug confidence and triumphant glee returning, to the point that the smile was soon back on his face. "Yes, that's it," the geomancer purred. "Just come keep coming." Aqualad kept walking, still moving slowly. But Geo-Force didn't seem to mind, in fact, he was actually enjoying seeing how very obviously defeated Aqualad was now acting. "Yes, that's right, keep on coming. Be the hero. Give yourself up to save your friends and the innocent civilian. Because that's what you heroes always do! And even so, you always inexplicably win!"

As Geo-Force was speaking to Aqualad, Terra was also watching Aqualad, her heart slowly breaking as she saw how very defeated and lifeless the Atlantean was now acting. But at the sound of Geo-Force's continued taunting and gloating, she slowly found herself fighting away her sadness and fear, and her eyes narrowing into a vicious glare at the active geomancer. Geo-Force, completely unaware of Terra's gradually expanding change of behavior, chuckled maliciously, and then continued, "But not this time you won't! No way! Starting today, you will be added to the collection of heroes my master shall convert the day after tomorrow! And starting on that very day, the age shall come in which the heroes shall be cast aside and the villains . . . shall . . . win!"

With an inarticulate shriek of rage, Terra lifted up her legs, clasped her feet against the sides of the stalagmite spear, and with a mighty push, sent it flying straight at Geo-Force. At the sound of this yell, Geo-Force turned his head to face Terra, just in time for the dull end of the stalagmite spear to bang him right in the face. The impact against his face from the unexpected attack sent the geomancer stumbling backwards and to the side, completely throwing off balance and breaking him from his concentration. As a result, the two other stalagmite spears that were holding Terra up against the oak tree lost their grip and fell to the ground, allowing Terra to land firmly back on her feet. At the same time, the rocky shackles pinioning the five founding Titans to the ground cracked, and then crumbled to dust, with the mud pit hardening within seconds back into solid earth while the dust arm and hand summoned to threaten to drown Robin in said mud pit exploding into harmless dust.

Aqualad jerked to a halt in an epic stunned reaction. "What the?" he thought to himself. Even the other Titans couldn't help but gape at the unexpected moment, all of them clearly having 'WTF' looks on their faces.

Geo-Force himself eventually managed to regain his balance, his own face conveying a surprised expression of his own. And he had just turned his head to look back in Terra's direction when a small stone beaned him in the face. And unlike when he'd gotten hit with the pommel of the stalagmite spear, the impact from the stone sent him falling onto his back.

Terra actually grinned at the sight of all this. She then raised her hand around her mouth so as to amplify her volume, and shouted, "Yeah! Take that you loser!"

But then she found herself quite regretting her choice of words when Geo-Force lifted himself up into a seated position, a furious glare on his face as he stared right at her. Terra silently gulped, an 'oh crap!' look on her face, and she hurriedly turned and started to run away to her left, just as Geo-Force lunged into the air with his fists raised. Terra managed to see Geo-Force jump out of the corner of her eyes, and she hurriedly turned her running into a leap, thus allowing her to just barely get out of range when Geo-Force came to a crashing land right where she'd been standing while slamming both fists down and causing a respectably sized shockwave for good measure.

Terra landed a good couple feet away from Geo-Force, palms first in a style allowing her to turn the impact into a roll. And upon making it back to her feet as a result of said roll, she smiled as she noticed just where she'd managed to land. Smiling still, she reached into a nearby bush and drew out what looked like one of the blasters from the Titans East T-Ship. She pointed it at the geomancer. Geo-Force had just managed to turn his head to face Terra when she fired the blaster. The beam struck Geo-Force in the chest and knocked him straight into a tree a couple inches away from the oak tree he'd earlier had her pinned against.

Terra giggled, hoisted the blaster onto her right shoulder and yelled smugly, "How's that feel Big Boy!?"

Geo-Force directed his gaze straight at Terra, snarled viciously with a smoldering glare on his face, and then swung his right arm, sending a small boulder flying at her. Terra hurriedly pressed the blaster against her chest, and did another jumping dodge roll to evade the stony projectile. When she rolled back onto her feet and turned to face Geo-Force once more, she made a point to yell, "You're gonna have to try harder than that! You wouldn't be able to hit the side of a barn with that kind of marksmanship!"

Geo-Force let out an inarticulate roar of rage, and then rocketed back onto his feet before stampeding straight towards her, bellowing inarticulately in fury. Terra merely turned around and started running as fast as she could further into the forest, the enraged geomancer following her in pursuit.

As this happened, Aqualad and the five founding Titans ran towards the point from which Terra and Geo-Force had exited the campsite clearing. "Terra!" Aqualad yelled, his worry showing clearly in his voice.

"I'm fine!" Terra shouted, turning her head to just briefly face her friends while still running Geo-Force. "Don't worry!"

"Terra!" Beast Boy yelled. "What are you doing?!"

"I'll distract him!" Terra yelled back. "I'm leading him away! I'll meet back up with you later after I've lost him," she continued as she ran further and further into the forest with Geo-Force still on her tail. "Now get out of here! I'll catch up!"

"Terra no!" Aqualad yelled as he attempted to run into the woods to follow. But Geo-Force saw this out of the corner of his eyes, and he flicked his wrist in the Atlantean's direction.

"Look out!" Robin yelled as he and the other Titans proceeded to leap back in the opposite direction, Cyborg even going so far as to grab Aqualad by the shoulder and dragging him along. And just in time to, for no sooner had the Titans leaped away with Aqualad in tow when a massive row of diagonal forward facing stalagmites sprang out of the ground in front of the trees forming the wall that Terra and Geo-Force had exited the clearing through. By the time the six Titans managed to get back on their feet and notice the deadly obstacle they'd just narrowly avoided, Terra and Geo-Force had already proceeded far enough into the woods so as to depart both from sight and from hearing range.

Aqualad clenched his fists, growling angrily. "Neptune's beard!" he yelled. "What is she thinking?!"

"Aqualad," said Robin. "Please calm down. . ."

"Don't tell me to calm down! We need to go after them now! We can't let Geo-Force get away! And who knows what he might do to Terra?"

"I get it Aqualad," said Beast Boy. "Really I do, but we've got other things to worry about right now to!"

"He's right," said Raven. "Now that Geo-Force has managed to find us here, this campsite's been compromised. We need to get our things and move out, find a new place to set up camp and hide. And Terra may have now given us just enough time to do exactly that."

"Well you can go right on ahead and worry about that!" Aqualad shouted back. "We still can't just abandon Terra to that monster's mercy like this! As dark as things are between you and her, she doesn't deserve that!"

"Then you go on ahead and go after them."

Aqualad turned his head to face Robin once more, the other four founding Titans doing the same. "Yes Aqualad," said Robin. "You heard correctly, go after Geo-Force and help Terra. The other Titans and I will take care of striking camp and relocating. Elementally speaking, you have the advantage, and he wants you alive. If anyone has the best chance of helping Terra right now, it's you."

Aqualad hesitated briefly, still partially in shock at Robin granting him permission for this very task so quickly. "You're sure?"

"Yes, Aqualad, we'll be fine. Now go! Use the rivers and other waterways in this area as a road! You can evade Geo-Force more easily that way! Come on! Hurry!"

"Right, of course," said Aqualad; and he turned and rushed over to the river before jumping in and swimming rapidly downstream in the direction that Geo-Force and Terra had taken.

Robin turned his head to face his team mates. "Come on Titans, move, move! We need to get this over with as fast as possible!"

The other Titans didn't need to be told twice, and they immediately sprang into action. Beast Boy, however, briefly paused, and turned his head in the direction that Terra, Geo-Force, and Aqualad had just left the clearing in, sending a silent prayer for Terra and Aqualad's sake. The second he'd finished sending out this prayer for luck for his two friends, he turned into a peregrine falcon and flew off to follow the rest of his team mates.

. . . . .

For what seemed like hours, Terra continued to run as fast as she could through the forest; Geo-Force remaining hot on her heels. And even as Geo-Force continued to summon boulders, shockwaves, and other seismic or similar earth-based attacks to throw at Terra, the former geomancer continued to hurriedly run, jump, and roll every which way she could to dodge the attacks and foil the active geomancer's efforts to take her out, even going so far as to briefly pause and fire another laser blast at him every now and then for good measure. Her continued dodging of his attacks and occasional counter attacks with her blaster only angered the geomancer even more.

Eventually, Terra noticed an exit leading out to a grassy meadow nearby the river's exit point into the ocean, and she hurriedly rushed over to it, planning to perhaps make a stand at that meadow where she would have more room to move and allow Aqualad a chance to properly intervene if he happened to be trying to follow her and Geo-Force. Geo-Force noticed Terra's change of direction, and rapidly altered his own course to follow her. Within moments, both the active geomancer and the former one burst out of the woods and into the meadow, Terra skidding to a stop directly in the center of the meadow while Geo-Force came to a screeching halt just a couple feet from the small gap in the trees that he and Terra had used to enter said meadow.

Terra smirked gleefully at her pursuer as he remained standing where he was with his body tensed up, fists clenched, and a glare on his face as he snorted in a mixture of exhaustion and fury. "Guess it's just you and me now huh?"

"You may have evaded me this long commoner!" Geo-Force shouted. "But this ends now! And I'm going to take you down!"

"Well go ahead then," said Terra, slipping her blaster onto her belt and getting herself into a battle-ready position she remembered from her martial arts lessons. "I'd like to see you try."

"Wish granted."

Geo-Force stomped his right foot, causing a bowling-ball sized earthen projectile to pop up out of the ground right in front of him, which he then sent flying towards Terra with a powerful stomp kick. Terra ducked, and the projectile sailed harmlessly right over her. The geomancer didn't even get the chance to summon another attack before Terra straightened back up and blasted him in the chest with yet another laser burst from her blaster.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that!"

"Yes," Geo-Force admitted. "It seems I will." He slammed his right fist on the ground, causing a line of stalagmites to erupt from the ground and expand rapidly in Terra's direction.

Terra hurriedly leaped and rolled out of the way in time to dodge the attack, and then did a back flip just in time to avoid getting sent sky high by a giant pillar of stones that Geo-Force caused to erupt from the area she'd come to a stop at in her rolling dodge. No sooner had the stone pillar lowered back into the ground when Terra was then forced to deal with five boulders that Geo-Force caused to rise out of the ground with a raise of his hands before he then sent them flying towards her one at a time.

Terra reacted quickly, waiting until the first of the five boulders was about three feet away from crashing into her before jumping in the air and onto the boulder. Using the momentum from landing on the first of the boulders, she propelled herself into leaping immediately from that boulder to the second, and then the third, and then the fourth. And no sooner had she jumped from the fourth boulder to the fifth one when she lunged straight at Geo-Force with her right foot at the ready to hit him in the face with a flying ninja kick. And much to Terra's delight, her flying kick attack hit Geo-Force solidly in the face just as he was on the verge of summoning a sixth boulder, sending him stumbling off balance. And immediately after Terra landed perfectly on her hands and feet, she promptly took advantage of Geo-Force's state of being off balance by swinging her body around in a circle so as to swipe the geomancer's legs out from under him with her own legs. Even before Geo-Force crash landed hard on his back as a result of Terra's leg sweep, the blonde girl was already backing away from Geo-Force once more with a series of back flips. And upon coming to a landing from her fifth backflip, she skidded to a halt in a three-point landing position that allowed her to still face in the direction of her opponent.

Geo-Force managed to get into a sitting position, snarled angrily at Terra, and sent a river of sand flying towards her with a swing of his left hand. Terra hurriedly performed another dodge roll to her left to avoid the sand, and then did a forward somersault to avoid getting smashed between two earthen slabs that rose in opposite directions from either side of her and slammed together like a closing book. Terra had literally just lifted her head to face Geo-Force once more after dodging that last attack when Geo-Force let out another uncivilized howl of rage and slammed both of his fists on the ground, sending twin seismic trails that interconnected and crossed over like a DNA helix hurtling her way. And as the two seismic trails continued heading towards Terra, the earth on which they traveled rose up into the form of hardened interconnecting earthen walls.

Terra, already formulating an idea in her head, and knowing that it would be pointless to attempt to dodge this time, ran towards the incoming attack. And then, right as she found herself directly between the ends of the seismic trails as they were about to collide yet again, she jumped towards a segment on the left side that had already risen up and hardened, using the impact from the jump to propel herself onto the wall on the right side and then directly over the connecting wall in front of her before the end originally about to connect at her expense finally merged together and hardened into one final segment complete with wicked sharp stalagmite spikes lining the exact area where the two lines had made their final connection. Seconds after this happened, the entire earthen helix collapsed into dust, and Terra barreled straight towards Geo-Force.

Cursing mentally, Geo-Force sent another line of stalagmites rushing in Terra's direction, only in a more undulating and wavy shape this time as opposed to a straight line. But unfortunately for the active geomancer, the unique shape he'd chosen for his newest attempt at this attack only allowed for Terra to be unwittingly provided with a means of both evading the attack and using it to get herself closer to him. She jumped in the air right as the stalagmites were inches away from reaching her, and proceeded to start rapidly dashing across the gaps between the curves of the attack, making sure to not let her feet touch the tips of the stalagmites she stepped foot for longer than two seconds. By the time Geo-Force noticed this and finally managed to force the still expanding line of stalagmites to a halt so as to dismiss it, Terra had already reached a sufficiently close distance so as to allow herself to lunge at him with another flying ninja kick. This second successful direct attack from Terra struck Geo-Force in the chest and sent him flying backward.

Geo-Force crash landed on his back once more and skidded to a halt a couple inches away from the exit back into the forest while Terra landed perfectly on her feet. Terra grinned triumphantly, and then started running towards him with a triumphant scream of challenge. But Geo-Force recovered faster than Terra had expected, and he jumped into the air slammed both of his fists hard onto the ground upon landing, producing a powerful seismic shockwave that knocked Terra off her feet and caused her to crash land on her back.

Terra had just managed to lift her head up from the landing and open her eyes when she saw Geo-Force barreling straight towards her with his right fist drawn back to punch at her. Eyes widening in surprise, Terra hurriedly leaned herself to her left just in time to dodge Geo-Force's attempt at punching her in the face. Then she leaned to her right to avoid a second punching attack from the opposite direction with Geo-Force's left fist. Then she leaned right, then left, and then left again. She hurriedly shook her head to clear her thoughts after her narrowly avoiding falling victim to the classic combat trick Geo-Force had just attempted, and then placed her hands on the ground and used this contact to propel her into lifting up her legs and feet and kick Geo-Force in the solar plexus with both feet at once, sending him stumbling backwards off balance. Giving Geo-Force no time to recover, Terra too advantage of Geo-Force's newly getting sent off balance by getting herself back out of the geomancer's physical reach with yet another series of backflips.

Immediately finishing her series of backflips, she looked back in Geo-Force's direction in time to see the geomancer in question running head on towards her with a shout of rage. Terra leaned back, waited until Geo-Force was seconds away from colliding with her, and then jumped up and over him, placing her foot on his back and using this contact to propel herself further forward and away from him. And as an added bonus, her act of propelling herself forward also pushed Geo-Force sufficiently off balance mid-charge so that he fell flat on his face and skidded to a halt a good couple feet away from her. Terra landed gracefully on her feet while positioned to look straight in Geo-Force's direction.

Geo-Force got on his hands and knees, turned his head to look back at Terra, and snarled angrily with his eyes blazing. He then jumped around in a circle and back on his feet before sending a rapid fire volley of boulders flying in Terra's direction while moving his hands and arms as if he were picking them up and hurling them with his own hands instead of terrakinetic power. Terra hurriedly dodge rolled to her left again and again to evade Geo-Force's efforts to smash her with his boulder volley. Geo-Force eventually ceased the volley out of irritation at the girl's continued evasion of it, and sent a miniature tidal wave of mud rushing towards her. Terra jumped over the wave of mud, even doing a triple back flip while directly above it, and landed smoothly on her feet while running straight towards Geo-Force.

Now both angry and desperate to stop Terra, Geo-Force caused singular stalagmites to erupt from the ground in random areas around Terra's approximate location in an effort to catch her off guard and make it harder for to avoid getting impaled. But Terra managed to consistently cartwheel and somersault left and right to avoid getting skewered, and then finally lunge straight at the geomancer. Cursing mentally, Geo-Force rapidly sent a small boulder flying at her. Terra clutched at the boulder and positioned herself to avoid getting pummeled in the chest by the boulder, and proceeded to use her own body weight to manipulate the boulder in a wide arc around Geo-Force before eventually sending her improvised ride rocketing in a straight path towards the geomancer.

Geo-Force had just enough time for his eyes to widen in shock before Terra jumped off the flying boulder and sent him flying backward with a solid punch in the face with her right fist. Geo-Force came to another hard landing on his back, with Terra once again landing smoothly on her feet. Geo-Force coughed in pain and exhaustion, and managed to lift up his head, only for Terra to draw her blaster back into position from her belt and shoot him in the stomach with another laser burst. The impact of the laser against his stomach shocked him out of his dazed state of pain, and he growled viciously in Terra's direction with a furious glare burning in his eyes. Terra saw this, and prepared her blaster for another shot.

But this time, Geo-Force was not about to let her get another shot in, and with a swing of his right arm, a tendril of dust burst out of the ground right next to Terra and swiped her legs out from under her before rapidly retracting back into the ground. Terra landed hard on her back with so much force that the blaster was jolted from her grasp and sent bouncing across the ground away from Terra and towards Geo-Force's position. By the time the weapon had finally skidded to a halt, Terra had just enough time to lift herself up into a sitting position and look straight at the blaster before Geo-Force caused a trio of stalagmites to erupt from directly underneath the weapon, impaling it and leaving it unusable. Terra silently gulped at the sight of how the weapon had been quite emphatically destroyed before she was then snapped back down to Earth at the sound of Geo-Force angrily yelling. She turned her head back to face Geo-Force in time to see him charging towards her again with his fists at the ready to swing at her.

Right as Geo-Force swung his right fist towards her face, Terra leaned gracefully to her right, and the enraged geomancer's fist swung harmlessly through thin air. Geo-Force didn't even get the chance to regain his balance and prepare a second attack before Terra pounded him in jaw with a punch of her own and sent him stumbling backwards to his right. Even while Geo-Force was still stunned from the blow to his jaw, Terra gave him a roundhouse kick to the chest with her right leg, and then sent him stumbling backwards quite a few feet away from her with a flying back flip kick to his face.

Geo-Force managed to eventually skid to a halt, rapidly flapping his arms in the process to regain his balance. He had only just managed to narrowly regain his balance and get both of his feet planted firmly on the ground when he turned his head to face Terra just in time for her to collide into him by rushing right at him and ramming her left shoulder into his chest. The blow knocked the wind out of him in a surprised gasp, leaving him now unable to properly react in time to stop Terra from initiating yet more attacks in the immediate future. However, Geo-Force manage to briefly catch a perfect up close glimpse of her eyes right as she was about to send another punch his way, and his own eyes widened as the sight of her eyes from up close ended up triggering an abrupt series of memories that served to not only confirm without a doubt that he did in fact know her, but also reveal a very surprising bit of information about who she was and how she was connected to him. Even as Geo-Force found himself rapidly getting exposed to the information, Terra proceeded to unleash a massive string of punches, kicks, karate chops, and various martial arts-based physical attacks.

And as Terra continued to unleash her merciless blinding assault on Geo-Force, the geomancer found himself quite incapable of reacting and unleashing counter attacks as he found himself both overloaded from shock at the memories and had what remained of his attention that wasn't focused on said memories listening carefully to what she was saying while attacking.

"This ends now!" Terra shouted as she continued to strike blow after blow against Geo-Force. "Throughout my entire life so far, I have always somehow ended up having to lose everything and be forced to remain in the shadow of misery, and loneliness, and pain! First forced into it by own family, then my own power, then my own friends, then my own heroic sacrifice, and then my own selfish fear!" As she shouted out these last bits, she began to become more rapid in her attacks against Geo-Force, growing increasingly angry with each blow as she continued to think of all the negativity she'd experienced in her life up to this point. "Well I am going to tell you right now that I am done with all that! I will not let any more villains or similar negativity force me to lose my chance at happiness and friendship! And I will not allow myself to die without something to feel truly happy about for once in my life! You hear me!? I! Am! Done! With! Letting! Fear! And! Negativity! Rule! My! Life! And I! Will! Not! Let! You! Destroy! My! Life! All! Over! Again!"

No sooner had Terra finished yelling the last word in this furious rant, when she leaned backwards to her right, let out a harsh guttural roar of rage, and then jumped up in the air while unleashing a powerful flying roundhouse kick to Geo-Force's face with her right foot. The kick connected solidly with Geo-Force's face with a massive pounding noise, the impact so strong as to not only send the geomancer flying, but also to cause his goggles to lift up and away from his closed eyes before flapping clear over his head, taking the partial hood and mask they were connected to be involuntarily lifted from his face and falling away behind his neck as well.

When time finally seemed to properly resume for the two combatants, the now quite effectively unmasked Geo-Force went hurtling away from Terra and bounced across the ground a few times before skidding to a halt, face down on the ground with his arms and legs sprawled out. Terra, meanwhile, landed gracefully as ever on her feet. And for a brief couple of minutes, Terra remained standing where she was, her fists clenched, her body tensed up and leaning forward, and panting in a mixture of rage, triumph, and tiredness. Then Terra finally managed to take a few deep breaths and calm herself down, and she gaped at Geo-Force in a mixture of stunned joy at having managed to survive and defeat him and likewise shocked disbelief at the sight of how she'd managed to also cause him to have his hood and mask involuntarily lifted up from his face. The latter detail soon caused Terra to silently gulp and then gape in a mixture of fear and anticipation. "What's gonna happen now?" she thought to herself in fear. "And for that record, what does he look like under that mask?"

Then Geo-Force let out a coughing gasp, his head abruptly lifting up and facing forward as he got himself up into a half raised push-up position. For what seemed like an eternity, Terra remained standing where she was with a half fearful and half excited look on her face as Geo-Force continued to pant and gasp. Then the ginger haired boy geomancer stopped panting, lifted up his right hand and fondled around at his face as trying to feel for his mask, then he touched the goggles and hood in the area where they'd now managed to end up positioned. Then he completely froze in position, then leaned forward, and then unexpectedly started chuckling in what could have just easily been interpreted as both triumphant laughter and deranged giggling.

As Terra watched, with a now far more nervous than anticipatory look on her face, Geo-Force remained on his hands and knees, still unleashing his unnerving chuckling and with his back still facing Terra. Eventually, just as Terra was beginning to seriously worry about what was about to happen, Geo-Force finally came to a slow stop in his chuckling, and then a deep breath and exhale. For just seconds more, silence hung in the air. Then Geo-Force spoke. "I have to admit, I really underestimated you."

Geo-Force then started giggling, but this time in a far less sinister and more of a genuinely pleased tone of voice. However, this particular chuckling caused Terra's eyes to widen, and for the girl herself to feel even more stunned. For in spite of how this particular bit of chuckling coming from Geo-Force didn't have anywhere as sinister a tone, she found it even more unsettling in how she actually now found it strangely familiar. In fact, now that she thought about, she could have sworn that the geomancer's current laughter actually sounded very much like a more mature and adult voice-oriented form of a very similar laughter she'd once heard during her childhood days from long before she'd developed her powers, and in fact long before she'd even left Markovia and relocated to America. "But how?" Terra thought to herself. "How could I possibly have met this person before? Or anyone related to him or otherwise similar to him? And for that matter, who is he?"

Geo-Force finally stopped chuckling, and shook his head side to side. "You really put up quite a fight," he then said. "I'll be honest with you; even though you no longer have the powers we both used to share anymore, you're still able to put up quite a fight against people like me who do possess special abilities."

At the sound of these words, Terra's eyes widened even further, and she very audibly held her breath with a stunned gasp. For in that moment, with just those two sentences, a very unnervingly familiar accent that had until this moment been completely absent from the geomancer's voice had managed to slip into his tone. She had only ever heard that kind of accent in the voices of the natives of one specific country; Markovia. And even without the accent giving him away as Markovian, she now found herself feeling as if just this particular voice from this particular person was especially familiar to her. But how?

Geo-Force chuckled again, the newly awakened, or perhaps maybe even reawakened accent making the chuckling sound even more familiar then it already had. "But that being said, after all that's happened just now, I'm actually quite glad that you were able to defeat me in this battle, not to mention that you were able to escape from that trap I had you in and prevented me from killing you back in that other clearing."

In spite of her nervousness and confusion as to why the geomancer was now beginning to seem so increasingly familiar to her, Terra raised her eyebrow in confusion. Geo-Force chuckled yet again at the girl's silence. "In fact, all those days ago, back at Steel City after my battle with your friends had ended, I actually did manage to get a direct glance at you with my own eyes, and even managed to catch a somewhat direct look at you through use of my seismic resonance sensing powers. But it was that glance I caught of you with my own unaffected eyes as opposed to my seismic senses that caused me to realize how very strangely familiar you looked to me even though this was the first time after I met and swore allegiance to my master, or even in the years that occurred before then that I'd ever seen you in a long time."

Geo-Force positioned himself so that he was on one knee. "And on that same day, long after I'd departed from Steel City back to the island that used to serve as home, but now instead serves as a temporary prison for my future comrades in arms, I managed to have a little chat with my master, and went so far as to actually ask him if there was any particular reason that you should seem so familiar to me. While admittedly, he neither confirmed nor denied my actually ever knowing you personally before or likewise having any reason for you to seem familiar to me, he did mention several details about your past as a Titan, including a little detail about you supposedly going by the superhero name of Aftershock."

Geo-Force then chuckled, and shook his head side to side. "But now I understand," he then said. "Now I understand that my master was only telling half the truth that time. For while every other detail he said about you was 100% accurate, your hero name wasn't Aftershock at all. Rather, it was one of the names you were considering in the last few days that unfolded before we got our powers. But upon receiving those powers, Aftershock wasn't the name you chose to use as your hero identity. Rather, you chose instead to take a name that sounded exactly like your actual civilian birth name, only spelled differently so as to both conceal your identity and make it sound more thematically appropriate in regard to your specific abilities."

Terra's eyes widened. "How did he know all that?" she thought to herself.

Geo-Force chuckled again, and then placed his left hand on the ground as if about to provide himself the leverage he needed to finally get back up on his feet completely. "But of course, I didn't realize those particular details at that particular moment. I will admit though, my memories did begin to put a much bigger struggle at waking back up after I managed to learn last night from a little scout I had watching over you, the Atlantean, and your direct former team mates about how you and Aqualad had managed to make it onto a mutual first name basis, something the changeling only wished he could have had with you. And in learning this news, I was made aware of your name. But it wasn't until just not too long ago, right as our little battle was just a couple minutes away from ending, when I managed to catch an up close direct glance at your eyes. And it was in that instant, when all my memories about this matter finally resurfaced, and I finally realized the full truth."

Geo-Force finally got back up on his feet, but with his head still hanging to face the ground and his back slightly arched. Then he slowly turned around to face Terra, still hanging his head and arching his back so as to face the ground. For a brief few seconds more, the two Markovians remained standing where they were, completely silent. But then Geo-Force continued, "And having realized all that, well like I said, I'm very glad indeed that you were both able to defeat me in this battle and prevent me from killing you back in that other clearing."

The geomancer then straightened himself up completely so that his back was no longer arched, but his head was still facing the ground. "After all," he then said. "As loyal to my master as I currently am, it would still be pretty evil of me to shed my own family's blood. Isn't that right . . ."

He then lifted up his head so that was finally looking Terra straight in the eyes, a closemouthed smile on his face and a warm glow of triumph and familiarity in his blue eyes. "Sister?"

Terra released her breath in a stunned gasp, her own blue eyes still widened in shock at the sight of Geo-Force's face without his mask on. But it wasn't so much the absence of the mask that now left Terra so stunned. Rather it was a combination of both the sight of his face and the words he'd just spoken before lifting his head to reveal his face. But what really sealed the deal was the one word he'd just now used to refer to her by immediately after lifting his head. That one word, combined with all the words he'd said before lifting his head, the sight of his face, his knowledge of that one very personal detail from her childhood, and also the very familiar laughter and accent that he'd displayed long before this current moment, was enough to truly confirm without any doubt, reasonable or otherwise, who this person truly was.

For what seemed like an eternity to both Terra and Geo-Force, Terra continued gaping in stunned shock and horror at the unmasked geomancer. Then, after a final brief struggle, Terra finally regained the ability to speak.

"Bryan?"

 **BOOM! End of chapter! And quite the way to end to! It's happened folks! For all those who aren't familiar with the comics, the truth has been exposed! Geo-Force is Terra's older brother Bryan! And with that earthshaking (oh do ignore that pun) secret having now been unveiled, only time will tell now how things will unfold from here! But until then, here's me hoping you enjoyed this chapter, and that you will leave plenty of feedback/reviews!**

 **Coming up Next: With Terra having finally unmasked Geo-Force, and in the process both realizing his true identity as well as recovering the last of her hibernating memories, things soon get very serious. But the question is . . . just how serious? Find out next time, on Geo-Force!**


	13. Shell-Shocked

**Well what do you know! It's only been 2 or 3 days since the last chapter I posted, and I now already have a new chapter ready! I must really be on a role! :) In this chapter, with the (not entirely surprising) secret (if you can call it that) of Geo-Force being Terra's brother now having been exposed to Terra herself, our poor tortured and troubled former geomancer and ex-Titan soon finds herself experiencing a very serious dilemma. Can she truly be a hero alongside the Titans as their friend once again at the cost of her own brother? Or is she destined to forever be a villain alongside him? A very challenging decision this is, and Terra will have to make it sooner or later. Let us begin, this new chapter! And here's me hoping that you read, enjoy, and review (but definitely please also leave individual reviews for all the chapters that I wrote and posted before this chapter as well! I'd really like to see your feedback on them!)!**

 **A/N: But first, just so I don't have lawyers hounding me, I do not own Teen Titans or anything else DC. Ok? Now, like I said, onward with the fic!**

 **Chapter 12:**

 **Shell-Shocked**

Bryan Markov smiled, his teeth now showing and his blue eyes agleam with triumphant joy. "Yes indeed Tara," he then said, specifically making sure to pronounce the name as 'tar-uh' so as to emphasize the already proven fact.

Terra's heart promptly sank even further upon hearing the endearing mispronunciation of her name. It was true. Geo-Force, the same person responsible for the capture and imprisonment of Titans East, subjecting Steel City to a terrifying attack, and even for threatening to kill her just to force Aqualad into giving himself up, was her own brother. And out of both of her two elder brothers, Geo-Force had turned out to be the one that was nice to her and on her side while living in Markovia. It took all of what little willpower she had left to prevent herself from wilting straight onto her knees and bursting into tears. "This isn't happening," she thought to herself. "This can't be happening. . . it can't!"

Bryan shook his head side to side upon sight of the expression on his half-sister's face. "Oh you'd better believe it sis. It's happening. Turns out, you're not the only child of the current king of Markovia to have grown up to eventually be labeled as a villain." He then smiled. "I guess you and I both inherited father's worst traits without our even knowing about it. And heck, considering how much of a conceited and self-righteous prick Gregor is, he probably isn't that far off from becoming a villain as well; assuming he isn't a villain already." His smile widened and he placed his fists on his hips. "Villainy it seems, runs in the family."

Terra remained absolutely silent, giving no visible clue as to whether or not she was even hearing what Geo-Force was saying. Her hands hung limp at her side, and she gazed at her brother with both sadness and emptiness in her eyes.

Geo-Force sighed, shook his head side to side, and directed a bemused smirk look at his younger sister. "I will admit," he then stated. "I probably shouldn't be so surprised at how you're currently reacting to this news. I mean, after all, it's been Lord knows how many years since we last saw each other before that battle back in Steel City the other day, plus a couple days added to that time before we saw each other today. And now that I think about it, considering everything that's happened to you ever since you left Markovia, particularly your time as a statue, you may very well have lost hold of the fact that I even had powers, or maybe have even needed to see my face just to remember that you even had siblings, let alone an actual biological family."

Terra silently gasped, for that last phrase that her brother had just said had now proven the final stimulus needed to trigger another chain of reawakening memories. Geo-Force noticed this reaction, and his face brightened up once more in a joyous smile. "I see you are finally starting to remember all that, aren't you?"

Terra gasped a couple times. "Yes," she eventually responded. "I am."

And in fact she was. At that very moment, every last one of the memories that had still remained fuzzy, intangible, and locked away in hibernation inside her mind were finally waking back up. Every last detail that she hadn't had available to grasp at when she'd finally told her former direct teammates about her backstory, and had even chosen to withhold from Aqualad during the times they'd chatted back in her time as a Titan, was now rapidly resurfacing to the very surface of her mind, blasting away all remaining doubts she had about the situation.

Geo-Force sighed in contentment, and shook his head side to side once more. He directed a warm and actually slightly sympathetic smile. "It's a lot to take back in, I'm sure," he then said in an understanding tone. "But as much of an overload as it is, it's better now that all that stuff has finally come back to you. In fact, it's just as much of a good thing that it's all now been reawakened at once in my mind. Because now, after all this time, we've finally found each other again Tara. No matter what happens now, no matter how many friends we lose, or how many masters abandon or betray us, or how many other people turn their backs on us and hate us, we still won't be alone anymore ever again. Because now, even after all that's happened or may yet happen in the future, we have each other now. And like they always say, through thick and thin, even when all your friends and enemies have left you, family remains. And as heartwarming as it can be to have people not directly related to you by blood be considered family, there's very little that can truly compare to having family that you actually share direct biological connections with. Family may not end in blood, and you yourself may only have half the bloodline that I possess, but blood is still blood, no matter how thoroughly divided it gets over the years or who contains it in their veins."

Terra still didn't answer, but this time fearfully realizing that her brother had actually brought up several valid points just now as well as being stunned at how he'd turned out to be the immediate villain of concern in the current situation. "No," she thought to herself, closing her eyes and clenching her fists and jaw in tense defiance. "I'm not like that. I won't go back to being a villain, and I won't let the fact that my brother has currently become an apparent villain just like I once did stop me. I broke my way out of my villainy, and he can do the same."

Geo-Force sighed, and shook his head side to side. "Oh Tara please," he said. "Stop fighting with yourself over this. Sure you may no longer be an active villain, and I may have only become such relatively recently, but what's the big deal in those differences when there still remains the one simple fact that, divided or not, we're family?"

The ginger haired geomancer then laughed in a mixture of joy and incredulousness. "And not just family, we're direct family Terra! We're brother and sister!" He turned around and started walking towards the water, Terra unconsciously repositioning herself to watch him. "Sure, technically we're only half siblings, but who cares about those kinds of technicalities anymore in this time and age!? Honestly Tara! Screw how old fashioned Markovia still is over these technicalities! Look at how many countries outside our own nation of birth, this very we're standing in right now included, have changed and allowed themselves to evolve and accept change with the times! Really, do such technicalities and divisions and labels truly matter anymore?!"

Geo-Force turned around to face Terra once more, and then spread his arms out to his sides. "Why should it even matter now what percentage of the bloodline we share, or what differences in label we may have, or how long it's been since we last saw each other in full knowledge of who we were? We're still family! And now, after all this time, we've finally reunited! Surely you grasp what this means!?"

Terra gulped, and hung her head, not wanting to admit out loud how correct her brother was, yet still unwittingly admitting it silently through her actions.

Geo-Force let out a half nervous and half saddened chuckle. "So what if there are still differences and time of separation still between us? Why should they block us and set us apart now? Why should they separate us at all?"

He then gestured towards the direction of Titans Tower East with his left hand. "And why?" he then asked. "Why should you let yourself make me an obstacle and enemy in your own mind? Why choose those so called heroes over me? I mean come on Tara! Face the facts! Consider your own direct former team mates for instance! Sure they took you in all those years ago when you were homeless and alone in the desert, but yet you still cut off ties with them without even giving them a chance to properly explain themselves over what you blindly assumed to be a bleach of trust and would lead to them treating you exactly like you had before even though you'd had time to see how different they were! And even without all that in mind, you don't owe anything to them anymore! Not after how you betrayed them! And even after how you've apologized multiple times and truly been working your hardest to allow it all to be put behind everyone, all of them still hold it against you to their own specific degrees! And sure the Atlantean wasn't affected nearly as strongly by the knowledge of all that happened, but even he wasn't entirely happy and forgiving when he first learned about it either! And his team mates that I'm even now holding captive?!"

He shook his head side to side, his mouth gaping open and his arms moving around as if in absolute complete incomprehension. "You've never even met them! And even if you do save them alongside the Atlantean and your direct former team mates, how can you know for sure that they won't treat you any differently than the Jump City Titans used to treat you, or potentially even worse?"

Geo-Force sighed in a mixture of exasperation and incomprehension. "Come on Tara!" he then yelled. "Why do you still try to patch things up with them and align yourself on their side? You owe them nothing! You don't need them! Especially not after we've finally found each other again!"

Bryan slowly started walking back towards his little sister, who didn't move an inch as he progressed, too stunned and reluctantly in agreement with some of his statements to even care anymore. "We may not have had the same mother, but we were still family! Heck, we weren't just siblings Tara! We were friends!"

Bryan came to a stop three feet away from Terra. "Heck," he then continued. "We were actually better siblings and friends to each other than Gregor ever was to either of us, and he and I were the only ones who both shared the same percentage of the bloodline that produced us! And my own mother?" He rapidly shook his head side to side with his eyes closed, even going so far as to snarl animalistically in rage. "A true mother wouldn't have had to have the truth about where you came from hidden from her! Such a thing wouldn't have mattered for a real mother! But no, she never loved you, or me, or even Gregor! She only loved the bloodline that both me and Gregor shared as trueborn princes! And she only loved Gregor even more for his obedience, loyalty, his birth number, his gender, and his ability to fit her image of a proper royal child!"

Geo-Force pointed his finger at Terra, his rising anger at his mother still clear on his face. "And she never cared for you at all! She only ever paid attention to you at all because of how suspicious she was at the time of whether or not you were truly who father claimed you to be! And if she'd ever known the truth, it wouldn't have mattered how old you were at the time she found out! Even if you'd been a baby, it still wouldn't have mattered how sorry father was for what had happened that time to result in your conception or how you weren't even at fault for what happened in the first place! She still would have killed you anyway just to spite our father and prevent any competition for the throne from arising! Does that sound fair to you!? Does that sound like a true family to you!? Huh!? Does it?"

Geo-Force stomped his foot on the ground in anger. "No! It doesn't!" He shouted. "No it doesn't! Not in any way, shape, or form! It's not fair! It's not right! It's absolute blatant injustice!"

He looked back at Terra. "It didn't have to be like this Tara! If it weren't for her, and for her stupid rules, and our country's stupid laws, and idiotic traditions, and brainless politics, we could have been a real family! We could have grown up together! We could have fought by each other's sides! We could have stayed together like true brothers and sisters should! But no, you had to be quietly evacuated to your birth mother's home country and be separated from me and father and leave us to her and Gregor in our entire stupid, unfair, isolated, cruel, idiotic, broken, tyrannical, hopeless, and out of touch country!"

Geo-Force finally paused his ranting, clasping his hands together, closing his eyes, and taking a series of deep breaths to calm himself down. Upon achieving this goal, he opened his eyes back up and looked straight at Terra once more with joy and hope now in his eyes and radiating in the rest of his likewise happy face. "But all doesn't matter anymore Tara," he then said calmly and peacefully. "Because now, after all that time we've spent separated and apart, we've finally reunited! We can be together again! We can be friends again! Siblings again! Family again!"

He then gestured in the direction leading back into the forest and towards the clearing where Terra, Aqualad, and the Jump City Titans had been camping. "Forget your so called friends! You don't need them! And they'll never be the true friends you want them to be, and they'll only abandon you all over again over just the tiniest screw up! Why bother trying to hold out for them when you could just be with me and be free from having to worry about whether or not you'd ever be consciously abandoned or mistrusted again! I would never do that you Tara! I'd always be your friend! I'd always be by your side! Darn it Tara, I could help you! I'm your brother!"

He then spread his hands upwards and sideways once more. "So what if my master at first feared that it would be wiser for me to never see you again or have you killed? You're my sister, and I've finally figured that out all over again, and I'm still not weakening in my loyalty to him! I'm sure he'd understand and make concessions for you for my sake! And just think of what could be in store for us when he and his master finally achieve their overall goal! Think of the rewards they could give us for our loyalty, our assistance, and our hard work! They'd let us both survive alongside all others on their side! And not only that, we could overthrow the sovereign monarchy that's always been ruling over Markovia and let it remain as unfair and out of touch as it still is! We could get rid of our mother, of Gregor, and all other unjust and undeserving rulers and leaders like them! The world doesn't need them! The world doesn't deserve them!"

Geo-Force then turned himself partially sideways and gestured upwards towards the horizon with his right hand. "Think about it Tara! We could be together as family again! We could be friends again! And not only that, but we could be royalty together! We could be rich and have paradise together! And we could rule our own little corner of the world as brother and sister!"

He repositioned himself so he was once again completely facing forwards towards Terra, took the last few steps between her and him, and placed his hands on her shoulders in a gesture of brotherly love. "Just think Tara! Think! We could have all that and more! And still, most important of all, finally be together again like a real brother and sister should! All you have to do is say yes!" He then strengthened his gaze, his eyes narrowing in a genuine mixture of hope, sadness, and desperation. "Please sister. Things don't have to be the way they are between us now, not anymore. We don't have to lose each other and be alone all over again. I don't want for us to be apart anymore Tara, and I know you don't want that now anymore either. So don't let it be that way. Let go of the past; look ahead to the future. Please Tara. Come with me. Join me."

For what seemed like an eternity, Terra maintained her gaze, letting her eyes remained locked with those of her brother, unable to look away or speak. And what was she supposed to say? She didn't want to betray her friends, give up all her effort she'd made in attempting to set things right, and become a villain all over again. But at the same time, she also couldn't help but agree with quite a large number of the things that Geo-Force had just said to her; and even if that weren't the case, how could she possibly say no and turn her back on her own brother? She hung her head, her body slack, her eyes closed, and clearly on the verge of tears. "What am I going to do?" she thought to herself, tears starting to seep from her closed eyes and start slowly dropping from her face. "This isn't fair. This isn't right. I shouldn't have to choose between something like this."

"Terra!"

Terra snapped right out of her dazed state of despair, her head snapping up and her eyes snapping open at the sound of the familiar voice calling her name. "Aqualad," she thought to herself. "He must have come after us to help me."

Geo-Force soon reached this conclusion as well. "It seems that my current time here with you is limited." He removed his hands from his sister's shoulders and lifted his hood and goggles back over his face. He gazed back at Terra, but this time with a stoic and emotionless frown. "For now I shall spare you, as I am your brother. And you can tell the Atlantean that he won't have to worry too much anymore for the moment. As of now, I am reinstating his original deadline of 12:00 noon this Saturday. Both for his sake and yours. Regardless of your own final choice, at least consider my offer dear sister. As much as it is within my power now for me to spare you from suffering the fates that will befall your direct team mates and any others that my master deems incapable of being recruited, I may very well be left with no other choice but to consign you to exactly that fate depending on both your own choice and my master's wishes." He hung his head, then lifted it back up. "Farewell for now dear sister. I truly hope this won't be the last time we ever see each other again."

He summoned a levitating boulder from the ground directly beneath his feet, lifted it up into the air, and then gave one final longing gaze of farewell before then turning it around and flying it off back in the direction of the Titans Tower East Island. Terra was left standing where she was, both relieved that the immediate ordeal was finally over as well as nervous and depressed at how much of a dilemma she was in now.

After what seemed like an eternity to the former geomancer, she was finally snapped back out of her second state of dazed depression when she heard Aqualad call out her name again while running towards her. Snapping back to attention, she looked in the direction she'd heard both noises in time to see Aqualad indeed running straight towards her from the side where the water was located. Aqualad came to a stop, panted briefly, and then looked straight at Terra. "What happened?" he then asked. "Are you alright? What did he. . .?"

"I'm fine," Terra responded, still half dazed from the revelation she'd just experienced. "I'm ok, I promise. I'm just, a little shaken up."

Aqualad briefly raised his eyebrow, but then he shook his head, growling mentally at himself for his unworthy thoughts of suspicion. "Well nonetheless, thank Neptune you're alright. I thought for sure you'd be a goner. You have no idea how glad I am that you're alive."

Terra chuckled nervously, a half smile on her face that she had a feeling looked far more nervous and sad then happy. "I'll . . . take your word for it," said Terra. She then hung her head, mentally chiding herself for still not doing the right thing and telling Aqualad the entire truth.

Aqualad noticed her voice tone and behavior, but at that moment he didn't care. He placed his hand on her shoulder as a gesture of reassurance. "Whatever happened, I'm sure it's something we can all talk about when you're ready. Come on, let's go find the others. I'm sure they've found a new place to set up camp by now."

Terra nodded her head in agreement, though her mind was still only half focused on what Aqualad was talking about. "Right, of course," she said in a partially detached voice. And even as proceeded to follow Aqualad into the forest and continue following him as they both made their way through the forest in search of the other Titans, she still couldn't stop thinking about what Geo-Force had said and what had just happened between him and her. What was she going to do?

. . . . .

Terra still had her mind on her not entirely pleasant experience with Geo-Force by the time she and Aqualad finally met up with the other Titans at the entrance to the new campsite. The campsite in question, as it turned out, was inside a large subterranean cave, and the Jump City Titans had already managed to transfer all their belongings from the previous campsite to the interior of the cave, with Raven having even managed to use her powers to harmlessly teleport the two T-Ships to a small batch of forested area not too far away from the cave.

But Terra could barely hear a word Robin said, let alone listen to what he and the other Titans said. Try as she might, she still couldn't get her encounter with Geo-Force off her mind. "My own brother," she thought to herself. "Of all the people to end up becoming my enemy, why did it have to be brother? And even if I absolutely had to have an enemy in my own brother, why Bryan? I'd have no qualms in doing battle with Gregor if he became a villain; but Bryan? The nice brother? Why?"

Robin eventually noticed how detached and unfocused Terra appeared to be, and his eyes narrowed into a suspicion filled glare. "Terra?" he then asked. "Are you listening?"

"What?" Terra asked, a look of shock and confusion on her face before she then realized that the other Jump City Titans were also staring at her alongside their leader. She hung her head. "I'm sorry," she then said. "I don't know what's going on with me right now."

"Are you ok?" Starfire asked.

Terra briefly tensed up as if trying to respond but having difficulty. But the Aqualad placed his hand on her shoulder, and she sighed, relinquishing the role of response to the Atlantean. Aqualad looked over at Starfire and the other Titans. "She's alright. Somewhat anyway. She was able to fight off Geo-Force that's for sure. But still, as much as she might say otherwise and not be willing to talk about it yet, I have a good feeling that something serious happened to her during the confrontation; something that's really left her shaken up."

Beast Boy chuckled to himself. "Shaken up," he stated to himself with more than a small hint of amusement in his voice, and then chuckled again until he lifted his head and eyes up in time to notice that Aqualad and his own team mates were now glaring at him, with Terra seemingly grimacing with her eyes closed. Beast Boy soon grimaced himself, instantly realizing his mistake. "Not funny, right," said Beast Boy. He hung his head. "Sorry."

"It's fine," Aqualad managed to say, though his tone sounded as if he were gritting his teeth.

Terra placed her hands on the hand Aqualad had placed on her shoulder, gently removed it, and then looked over at Robin. "I'm sorry," said the blonde. "But could I please go inside the cave and have some time on my own in there? I could really use some time alone to think things over."

"Say no more," responded the Boy Wonder. "Go on ahead. We'll make sure to leave you alone as long as necessary. Besides, we've still got some business to take care of anyway before sunset."

Terra did not need to be told twice, and she let a grateful smile come on her face. "Thank you," she then stated before slowly walking away from Aqualad and around her direct former team mates before then making her way straight into the cave and out of sight and hearing range of the six active heroes.

The six Titans directed their gaze in the direction of the cave entrance for a brief moment. Then Robin decided that it was best to worry about other things for the current time, and he turned his head away while clapping his hands once. "Alright guys," said the Boy Wonder. "Like I said, we've still got some work to do." He looked over at Starfire. "Star, you and I will go get kindling for a fire. With the exact location within the cave that our camp is at, I think we can risk it." He then looked over at Cyborg. "Cyborg, you go with Raven and Beast Boy to scout out the perimeter and see how we can best keep watch over Geo-Force and the Titans East Tower tonight." Then he looked back at Aqualad. "You stay here," he then said, pointing his left thumb towards the cave. "Just in case Terra feels ready to talk or needs someone to keep her company while we're gone."

Aqualad nodded. "Understood."

"Good."

Robin clasped his hands again, fingers intertwining. "Titans, move out."

The five teens immediately set off to get to work on their tasks. Aqualad, meanwhile, remained where he was for a few seconds longer after the departure of his friends, and then walked over to the side of the cave entrance before sitting himself down against the wall directly to the right of the entrance, sighing in exhaustion. "What a day," he thought to himself.

For the next half hour, Aqualad remained seated next to the entrance of the cave, waiting for either the other Titans to come back from their duties, or for Terra to come out of the cave. With that half hour passed, Aqualad turned his head to direct a worried look at the cave entrance. He was really beginning to wonder what was taking Terra so long, and if perhaps maybe whatever had happened to her during her encounter with Geo-Force that had left her in her current state had affected her even more strongly then he'd thought. Eventually he couldn't take it anymore. With a resigned sigh, he got up on his feet and entered the cave, making his way carefully and quietly through the subterranean corridors to find Terra. "I hope she's alright," he thought to himself.

. . . . .

Terra, as it turned out, was now sitting against the very back wall of the spacious cavern that the Titans had chosen to use as their newest campsite within the cave. And as she remained seated in this position with her legs bent against her chest, her arms wrapped around her knees, and her eyes staring blankly towards the wall opposite her, she thought to herself over and over, "This can't be happening, this can't be happening, this can't be happening. . ."

But as much as she hated to admit it, it was happening. The very villain immediately responsible for the entire mess that she and the Titans were currently dealing with was none other than her own brother. And with that knowledge, her future was left greatly at stake in more ways than one. Not only would she now be both emotionally handicapped as well as at a disadvantage in power if she were to ever have to do battle with him again, but she was also now unable to help but fear whether or not her brother was indeed correct about her potential fate of permanently being a villain and enemy of the titans alongside her brother being set in stone. She didn't want to believe that, she truly didn't. But even so, as nice and noble as they'd both been as children, and even in spite of Terra herself having managed to both undergo a period of life as a villain and seemingly finally put it behind her, Geo-Force had seemingly just as easily ended up becoming a villain himself. "What if he's right?" she thought to herself, a few small tears starting to well up in her eyes and come at risk of streaming down her face. "What if I am destined to be a villain again? And this time for good? Do I really have no hope at all for a happy life with the people I want to have as my friends?"

She hung her head, tears now freely pouring from her eyes. "I want to be a hero and have the Titans as my friends again so badly. I want for my life to be happy and positive and full of light so badly; more than I can say, more than I can say. But my own brother? Really? Why me?"

"Terra?"

Snapped out of her dazed and tearful funk, she snapped her head back up, and then looked straight in the direction she'd heard the voice calling her name coming from. And of course, she saw none other than Aqualad standing right within the cavern hole serving as the single entrance and exit to the cavern. Terra sighed, turned her head and looked over at the area that had been marked as the site for a campfire with her head slightly lowered. "Hello," she then said in a defeated tone.

Aqualad made his way over to the clearly depressed and defeated half Markovian and sat down right next to her. The Atlantean sighed, and turned his head to look directly towards her head. "Let me guess. You're not ok."

Terra sighed, and shook her head side to side, not even bothering to try to deny it. "No," she responded. "I'm not ok. Not one bit."

Aqualad nodded, a somber look on his face as he received the confirmation for what he'd already been strongly suspecting. "What happened back there between you and Geo-Force? Whatever it is that's bothering you right now, I know it's got something to do with that encounter."

Terra sighed once more, hung her head completely, and then lifted it back up while turning her head to look away to her left. She knew that Aqualad was right, and that it would potentially be both helpful and much better for her overall health and best interests to talk about it. But at the same time, she couldn't help but fear how Aqualad would react, not to mention how her direct former team mates themselves would react in the event that she were to inevitably end up having to tell them as well.

Aqualad, sensing Terra's discomfort and reluctance, placed his hand on her shoulder. "Terra, I get it, you're scared. And believe me, I'm sure you have perfectly good reason to feel the necessity to hide it, but as has already happened before, and you yourself have made clear, it will only get worse if you let it stay bottled up and hidden instead of letting it out and getting it over with here and now."

Terra sighed. "I know."

She turned her head to look at Aqualad. "Believe me I do. But it's not that easy, you know that. And besides, you don't even know what it is that I'd even be saying."

"Doesn't matter," said Aqualad. "Whatever it is, I'm sure it can't be that bad compared to the last time you had secrets to hide. And besides, after all the drama that's unfolded in this mission in general, let alone in regard to you and the Titans or whatever, would talking about it really make the situation any worse than it already is?"

Terra sighed, looked down at the floor directly at her feet. "Honestly," she responded. "That's debatable."

"Well nonetheless," said Aqualad. "I still think it will be much better for all of us that way if you tell us about it sooner rather than later."

He stood back up. "I'm not gonna try to pressure you into speaking about it if you really don't want to talk about it. I'm better than that. But regardless, I really think you should at least try to make an effort to talk to us about whatever it is that went down between you and Geo-Force that's got you so shell-shocked right now."

The Atlantean began to make his way back to the corridor, but came to a pause just as he was a footstep away from departing from the cavern, and he turned his head to look at Terra one more time. "Uncomfortable as it may be, it's better in the end to let it flow then to hold it back." He turned his head away and departed back into the corridors to leave the cave.

Terra sighed, and hung her head. And for the next few minutes, she remained in this position, both wanting to stay in the cave forever and wishing for the whole nightmare to end at the same time. She knew that Aqualad was right, and the last thing she needed, let alone wanted, was for yet another earthshaking secret to be revealed secondhand to the Titans after everything else they'd already gone through in her regard. But even after all that had happened before and how much she wanted desperately to avoid it being repeated all over again, did she really have what it took to come clean herself this time? And even if she did, would she really be able to reliably fight alongside the people she so desperately wanted to truly be her friends against her own brother?

 **And just like that, another chapter is complete! Boy I feel proud of myself for this one to! ^_^ And I especially hope that you enjoyed reading this chapter and that you all leave plenty of feedback! Seriously, I am begging all readers (including guests) who have anything to say that isn't a flame, please, please, PLEASE review! I NEED my reviews! But nonetheless, once again, I hope you enjoyed! Cuz believe me, I'm really having fun here. :)**

 **Coming up Next: That very night, Terra finally musters up the guts to come clean to the Titans about her earthshaking (both literally and otherwise) encounter with Geo-Force. How will they react? And for that matter, what is the whole overarching plot behind this mess anyway? Find out, in the next chapter of Geo-Force!**


	14. Coming Clean

**Alright everybody! As of now, I give you, a new chapter! In this exciting new addition to the story, Terra has finally decided to tell everyone about what truly happened between her and Geo-Force in that earlier encounter as well as the earthshaking news she's uncovered about her somewhat unsettling connection to the apparently villainous active geomancer. Now the question is, how will Aqualad and the Titans react? Will they look past this news and still accept her as their friend, or will it be like the end of 'Betrayal' from back in season 2 all over again? And even with all that in mind, just what exactly is the overall plot behind Geo-Force's presence in Steel City, let alone what his even now mysterious as ever master plans to do with Titans East when he arrives? Find out everyone, in this fantastic new chapter! Here's to hoping you enjoy, read, and review (and do by all means review! Regardless of whether or not you are a guest or have an account on here. If you read this and have the ability, please do leave a review. At the very least I'd like to have at least ONE review if any for this chapter by the time I finish the next chapter before I post it).**

 **A/N: But first, just to cover my legal bases, I do not own Teen Titans, or anything else DC based. Got that? Good. Onward with the story!**

 **Chapter 13:**

 **Coming Clean**

An hour later, Terra found herself sitting silently and almost completely in her own little world within the small circle that Aqualad, the Titans, and herself had now formed around the warm fire that was now burning comfortably before them all in the makeshift fire pit they were sitting around within the center of the cavern. At the current moment, all six of the official Titans present were having a good time chumming around, conversing, and snacking on s'mores, a small batch or two of which were vegan friendly for Beast Boy's sake. And speaking of Beast Boy, she actually had a pretty good feeling that he may have let off several or more of his usual jokes that seemingly only appealed to her and Beast Boy's sense of humor. But she barely even remembered hearing him give off any of the jokes in question, for she was still deep in thought about both what had happened between her and Geo-Force earlier that day as well as what Aqualad had told her during his little pep talk with her an hour earlier.

She shuddered mentally. Even at the mere thought of all that, she could feel a powerful mental struggle going on. While one side was very ardently shouting and howling for her to be brave and do the right thing, another was whimpering and squeaking and begging for her to wait and keep it hidden and to avoid running the risk of the negative reactions that she was all too afraid of seeing her old friends display all over again. She closed her eyes tight, and discreetly shook her head side to side to try to clear her thoughts. But even so, she knew she couldn't keep putting the matter off forever. And quite frankly, when she really thought about it right, this current time was actually a pretty good choice of time to talk about it and get the whole mess out of the way.

She hung her head, for even in spite of how seemingly good of a choice of time this was to come clean and all the potential benefits, she still couldn't help but feel deathly afraid of how very terribly negatively the Titans had the potential for reacting. Already she could see the looks of anger, rage, and betrayal that would likely be on their faces, hear the shouting, accusations, and recriminations they would potentially send her way, and even _feel_ the hatred and betrayal they'd probably radiate towards her when they learned the news she had to offer. And as much as she knew that this potential negativity was just as possible to occur anyway if she didn't tell them herself, she still wanted nothing more than to avoid going through that kind of negativity all over again. And in particular, she especially didn't want to have to experience it coming from Beast Boy or Aqualad. Sure, she'd already had to suffer through Beast Boy's negative reactions enough times over the past few days, but even then she still couldn't help but feel another stabbing sensation in her heart every time he ever directed anger and likewise upset feelings of his towards her over something she'd done. After all, it was specifically because of how strongly she'd affected him with her past sins that made her want so badly to salvage at least a strong friendship at the very most with him even more than she did for her other four direct former team mates.

As for Aqualad, as supportive as he'd been to her over the last few days, she was almost paralyzed with terror over how he would potentially react over this bit of news, particularly since this time he'd have the opportunity to learn it at a moment in which it would affect him far more strongly than his learning about her betrayal of the Titans as a mole or her blatantly lying to Beast Boy and running and hiding herself away from her past instead of facing it had. And the very fact that he'd been so supportive of her all the way up to now, especially compared to how Beast Boy had once been, was what really made her so worried about how he'd react. In fact, she knew that if Aqualad were to react at all in the way that she feared he'd react, then she'd be broken beyond compare, her heart shattered and her mind so swamped and flooded with despair and heartbreak that she'd be perfectly willing to either beg for Geo-Force to kill her or to just retreat deep into the most furthest and darkest reaches of the cave that she and the Titans were now camping in and never come out. She sighed, and shook her head side to side while still hanging it down. What was she going to do?

Little did Terra know, however, that Robin had noticed how the former geomancer was currently behaving, and was now starting to get more than a little suspicious as to whether or not she was potentially hiding something, and if so, what said secret could be. Deciding to try to discreetly get his four fellow founding teammates on guard and directly made aware of his current thoughts, he said to Aqualad, "Hey Aqualad, mind if my fellow founders and I go outside this cavern for a little bit? There's something I'd like to take care of real fast, and I think it would be wise for me to have plenty of backup with me just in case."

Aqualad thought to himself. The request, and the reasoning behind it, seemed reasonable enough. Then he realized one little detail, and he raised his eyebrow. "What about me and Terra? Why don't you want us to come with you?"

Robin had expected this though, and he had a reply at the ready. "From how strongly Terra appears to have been affected by whatever happened between her and Geo-Force, I think it might be best for her to stay here for a while where she'll be relatively safe just in case. And I think it best that you stay with her for obvious reasons. Plus, I may or may not have an idea forming in my head on how we could get into your tower and rescue the other Titans East members, and I think it best I discuss it with my fellow founding team mates first before we pitch it to you."

Aqualad thought to himself, briefly considered whether or not to trust Robin on that response, but then decided that he could afford to give the Boy Wonder the benefit of the doubt this time. He nodded his head, eyes closed. "Very well then," he then responded. He looked back at Robin with his eyes open. "Go on ahead. I'll be right here with Terra."

"Thank you," said the Boy Wonder. He got up on his feet. "Come on guys," he then said to his four fellow founders. "Let's go."

The other four Titans in question looked each other in the eyes, then silently agreed as one to accompany their leader as requested. One by one, they got up on their feet, and then all five of the original Titans exited the cavern and into the corridors.

For a few minutes, Aqualad stared in the direction of the exit, listening to the sound of his friends' footsteps as they gradually became quieter and quieter. After a full 30 seconds passed without him hearing any more footsteps, he turned his head to face Terra, only to see her starting to get up on her feet and looking towards the cavern entrance as if about to exit the cavern herself. "What are you doing?" Aqualad asked in confusion.

Terra straightened up onto her feet, sighed, and then looked at Aqualad. "I'm going after them."

"Why?"

Terra sighed once more, shook her head side to side with her eyes closed, and then opened her eyes again with a firm look on her face that showed that she now clearly had her mind made up. "Come on Aqualad. Don't play dumb with me. I saw the way Robin looked and behaved just now, and I know you did to. And that being said, whatever he and the others are up to right now, I have a good feeling that it's got nothing to do with exploring or privately discussing rescue plans. And don't deny it, I know you were thinking the same thing, and still are."

Aqualad paused, thinking to himself. Then he sighed, and nodded his head in agreement with his eyes closed. Even after Robin's response to his earlier voicing his suspicions, Aqualad himself was still certain about what Robin's true intentions were about going out into the corridors with the other founding Titans while having Terra and himself remain in the cavern.

Terra saw Aqualad's silent agreement, and nodded her own head up and down. "No point lying to ourselves," said the former geomancer. "Odds are, he's starting to get suspicious about what may have happened between me and Geo-Force earlier today and whether or not I might be hiding something and decided to talk it out with the others." She then turned around to face the exit. "And that being said, I might as well be brave and let myself hear what he has to say."

Aqualad had to admit, he certainly did agree that Robin's current approach to what he and Terra were currently suspecting of him wasn't entirely the nicest way to go about it. Still, what Terra was suggesting still technically counted somewhat as insubordination. "Well you do have a fair point," Aqualad agreed. "But still . . . he did tell us to stay here. . ."

"And if he's going to act like this around me over the matter," said Terra. "Then I might as well be brave and talk."

The last word alone was enough to get Aqualad's attention. "You mean?"

"Yes Aqualad," said Terra. "I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe, now truly is just the right time for me to go ahead and come clean on this matter." She turned her head to face him, reaching out her left hand as if offering to help him up on his feet. "Want to come with me? This matter concerns you just as much as it does the others."

Aqualad thought to himself, and then nodded, a firm look of determination of his own now on his face. "As you wish friend." He grabbed onto Terra's outstretched hand with his own right hand, got himself up on his feet, and then both he and Terra walked confidently into the corridors to search for Robin and the other Titans.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, after a good bit of walking around, Robin and the other founding Titans had finally come to a stop at an area that the Boy Wonder believed just right for his current intentions. Clasping his hands and closing his eyes, he took a small series of deep breaths as if calming himself down and preparing himself for what he now planned to say. The other Titans were confused as to what was going on, but they wisely remained silent both out of respect and out of having a feeling that Robin would explain himself soon enough.

Sure enough Robin took one last deep breath, exhaled, and then turned to face his friends, his face clearly showing that he was ready to talk. "Alright guys, I'm sure you're probably thinking by now that I've had us come out here for a completely reason than the one I gave when Aqualad asked; that is, assuming you weren't thinking so already."

Just the first half of that sentence alone was all the other Titans needed to hear, and they briefly looked each other in the eyes with a shared almost conspiratorial blank frown on their faces, and then looked straight at Robin with said look still on their faces. "This is about Terra isn't it?" Beast Boy asked.

Robin was briefly caught off guard at how quickly his team mates had managed to determine his true reasons for their current meeting. Then he sighed, and nodded his head in confirmation. "Yes," said Robin. "It is."

"Come on man," Cyborg groaned. "Give the poor girl a break. We just had enough drama over her to deal with yesterday. Cut her some slack."

"As surprising as you might find this considering my past stances I've taken on her, I agree with Cyborg." Raven closed her eyes and nodded her head up and down. "Secret or no secret, we've already been put through enough drama in our lives in her regard, and so has she. I know I was against her being with us on this mission at first, and how long I distrusted her even before our reunion with her back at Jump City Beach, but this is starting to get ridiculous. And as much as I hate to admit it, unlike the day she officially joined the team the first time and those seismic worm robots attacked the tower, I haven't gotten any indication from her, supernaturally provided or otherwise, that she's to be mistrusted and treated with caution this time. I'm surprised to be saying this myself, but I really think she's gotten better now and I don't think she deserves to be continually treated with mistrust like this over her past mistakes, let alone anything she might potentially be hiding from us right now."

Robin directed a deadpan look towards the gray skinned sorceress, clearly not impressed with what she'd said. "Guys, this is serious. . ."

"She is right you know."

Robin whipped his head to face Beast Boy, his face clearly showing how stunned he was that the shape shifter had now sided with Raven. Considering how he'd behaved the previous day plus how he'd reacted to learning about Terra having lied to him about forgetting her time as a Titan entirely, Robin had not at all expected for Beast Boy to actually stand up for Terra again this early. Cyborg and the girls were likewise surprised.

Beast Boy, seemingly not paying any attention to the surprised looks he was getting from Cyborg and the girls, Beast Boy maintained his steady gaze at Robin. "Look Robin," said Beast Boy. "I know what you're probably thinking. How could I of all people possibly be taking her side after how I've behaved in her regard the past few days, particularly yesterday? Don't get me wrong, I understand why you're concerned. Really I do. But honestly Robin, Raven's right. And so is Cyborg. Regardless of past grievances, or whatever she could potentially be hiding now, assuming she's even hiding anything at all, we shouldn't be going to these extremes. It may have been reasonable to act like this before, but quite honestly it's getting ridiculous now, even for us."

"Beast Boy is right," said Starfire. "Let the bygones be the bygones Robin. As our friends have already now made the clear as a crystal, we've already gone through enough theatrics when it comes to friend Terra. And for the sake of our other friends currently being held captive, can't we not just let this other little matter go?"

Robin sighed. Admittedly, he understood where his friends were coming from, but the matter at hand was still nonetheless important. "Look, I understand what you're saying here, I really do. And I'm not trying to be the devil's advocate here. Seriously, in my case, the less I have to do with the Devil right now, the better. But as important as it is for to stay focused on rescuing the rest of Titans East and regardless of how much drama we've already gone where Terra's involved, we can't just ignore this other little matter. I don't want to believe that she's possibly hiding any more secrets from us any more than you do. But we still have to be willing to be on guard just in case she is now hiding anything more from us. And assuming she is, who knows how bad it could be? For all we know, Slade might have gotten to her again. Or she may be working for Geo-Force, or even working straight for that master he's mentioned. Or it could be something else that's nonetheless bad news." He looked over at Beast Boy. "I mean come on Beast Boy, you in particular understand especially well what I'm getting at here. Right?"

Beast Boy closed his eyes, and sighed heavily. He looked back at Robin, a tired look on his face. "Look Robin," said the shapeshifter. "I get why you're doing this, we all do. And believe me, I'm sure we all appreciate the concern, and that you have the best of intentions in mind. But honestly Robin, after all we've already been through when it comes to her, and especially after that argument I had with her yesterday, I'm done with being all keyed up around her and treating her like she's still our enemy. We've allowed all this drama involving her to continue long enough, and I'm tired of it now. And I'm sure that the rest of us are just as tired; heck, I'm sure even you are starting to get tired of that, regardless of what you might say otherwise." The shapeshifter hung his head. "But enough is enough. There's already been so much drama and tension amongst us over her, and I'm really starting to believe that maybe it truly is time to let that all go now and truly trust her again, both as a former Titan, and as a friend. Heck, we should have let it all go long before we met back at the beach when she turned herself to stone to shut down that volcano and save the day three years ago. Seriously Robin, we're heroes. We're supposed to be better than this. Yet here we are treating her as if that sacrifice she'd made had never even happened. I'm willing to let it all go and give her a real chance Robin. Heck, even my animal instincts are agreeing with me now on that matter. And of all the animals inside me, the Beast is the only one who's still not entirely willing, and even _he's_ considering letting her off the hook a little. We've let this drama exist between her and us long enough. Let's just let it go."

"Friend Beast Boy is right," said Starfire. "The past is the past Robin. And we've held onto it long enough. Just let it go and let us move onward to the future.

"Yeah man," said Cyborg. "Give it a rest. Terra's gone through enough, and so have we. She deserves a real chance with all of us now. And besides, secret or no secret, we've got more important things to worry about. Namely, saving the other Titans East members and taking out Geo-Force. Terra or no Terra, they're our friends to, and they need us. And besides, after my experiences with them as their temporary leader, they're just as much like siblings to me as all you guys. And I don't want to let them down. They deserve better than that, and whatever it is that Terra may or may not be hiding, we can worry about that later. Especially with what else we now have to deal with here."

"I agree," said Raven. "As much as I used to distrust her and be on guard around her up until now, and regardless of all my denial about it back after her betrayal was first exposed, she was my friend to, and I actually did trust her back then just as much as you did after she'd finally become an official member of the team. And after everything that's happened since and how much time I've had to think on the matter, even I'm willing now to let it all go, move on, and give her another chance, a true chance. And besides, I honestly could care less what sort of secret she could hiding right now if she even has any to hide at the moment. Heck, just this very night, she could up and say that Geo-Force is her father, and I could care less at this point. What's done is done, and we're all tired of it now. Just let it go."

Robin thought to himself. And he thought very carefully and hard to. He now had to admit, after hearing everything that his fellow founding Titans had just said on the matter, he now couldn't help but feel that they were right and that it maybe it truly was time to let it all go himself and give Terra some much deserved leniency and benefit of the doubt. "Well," he then said. "I guess maybe I am being a little too hard on her and paranoid right now. And you all do have pretty good points here."

The Boy Wonder looked straight at his four close friends. "You're right. I've let this go on long enough. We've all let this go on long enough. We've had enough drama already, and perhaps maybe it truly is time for us all to let it go and put it behind us. Let Terra have a real chance to be our friend again. Heck, we should have let this all be laid to rest after her heroic sacrifice of redemption she made three years ago. We really are supposed to be better than this. And thanks to you, I say we go ahead and be exactly as better as we're supposed to be."

At the sound of this, Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy noticeably brightened up. Raven, meanwhile, only let a small half disinterested smile and half smug smirk come on her face. "You mean?" Starfire asked.

"Yes Star. Screw my earlier suspicions and deeming it necessary to have us all gather here in private to discuss those. Secret or no secret, Terra deserves better at this point. Even if I should turn out to have been correct to suspect her, that's not important now, not with everything else that we've currently got at stake. And if it so turns out that she's hiding another deep dark secret from us and we go down in flames because of it, so be it. I already obsess enough over Slade. And one obsession's enough for me." The other Titans cheered and looked each other in the eyes with glee, clearly happy at how things had now unfolded.

"That . . . that was so beautiful."

Stunned, the five Titans looked in the direction they'd heard the unexpected new voice coming from, and found their eyes widening in shock at the sight of none other than Terra standing right behind the four 'subordinate' members of the Titans. Terra simply smiled warmly, yet at the same time with a tiny hint of sadness still in her eyes.

Robin managed to regain his ability to speak. "Terra," he then said. "What are you doing here?" Then he thought of one little not entirely pleasant factor to be considered, and he made a very guilty and sheepish looking grimace. "And for that matter, how long were you there?"

"Long enough."

The Titans had barely enough time to even realize that yet another unexpected voice had been heard before Aqualad stepped out from the same side tunnel that Terra herself was now standing near. "We heard everything. And as cowardly as it was to try to hide all this from Terra, I can definitely say that you've really improved over the course of that meeting you just had, and for that I am proud." At the sound of all that, all five Titans looked at each other with more than a little sheepish looks on their faces. While they were happy with the fact that neither Aqualad nor Terra appeared to be taking that big of an issue, they were now feeling understandably guilty about how the two had turned out to be present to overhear them talking about some admittedly rather sensitive matters behind their backs.

"Yeah, sorry about that," said Beast Boy. He surreptitiously directed a sidelong glare at Robin. "This meeting wasn't my idea." Raven noticed Beast Boy's subtle attempt to throw Robin under the bus. In spite of how in this case Beast Boy was correct, she couldn't help but raise her eyebrow.

Terra shook her head. "Doesn't matter," she then said. "Regardless of how it was Robin's idea and his fault for dragging you in and choosing to try to keep this hidden from me, he still has made up for it, and so have all of you." She then hung her head. "But nonetheless, there is something I'd like to tell you guys right now."

The silence that followed this statement was like a physical force, and all five of the founding Titans had their eyes wide open in stunned shock. Robin even mentally cursed, now feeling even guiltier as a result of thinking that, having apparently been proven correct in that Terra was now hiding something, had unfairly now forced her into speaking out about it by unwittingly letting her overhear him voice his suspicions. "Terra," he then said, "whatever you're about to say, it can wait if you really don't want to talk about it. . ."

"Robin," said Terra. "While I appreciate the concern, I'd really rather not back out this time. You guys deserve better, and I'm done with running away." She looked up to face all five of her former direct team mates. "And yes Robin, you are correct. What I'm about to tell you is indeed something that I've been hiding."

The former geomancer took a deep breath, and exhaled. "I haven't been hiding this secret very long, mind you. It only became my secret to keep at around the end of my battle earlier today against Geo-Force." She opened her eyes. "But nonetheless, I'm gonna tell you what happened, right now."

She took another deep breath, exhaled once more, and then directed her gaze straight at the five founding titans, all of whom looked very promisingly interested in hearing what she had to say. "To begin, it all started with me running through the woods with Geo-Force pursuing me. Then the battle began in full when I finally managed to get myself over to a meadow outside the forest and near the ocean, with Geo-Force following as usual."

"This is interesting Terra, I'll admit that," said Robin. "But please, what does that have to do with . . .?"

Starfire placed her hand on her boyfriend's shoulder, and the Boy Wonder in question instantly stopped talking, and turned his head to look at the Tamaranean, who shook her head side to side. "Let her talk Robin," said the orange skinned alien princess. "Whatever it is that she was originally planning to keep hidden from us, she will reveal it to us in full at her own pace." She then turned her head to face Terra once again, and nodded her head with a small smile on her face, clearly indicating for the half Markovian former Titan to continue.

Terra nodded, a sincerely grateful look on her face. "Thank you Star." She allowed her gaze to place equal focus on all five of the Titans once more. "And to continue, during the battle that unfolded between me and Geo-Force in that clearing, I'm proud to say that I was able to quite effectively hold my own, and I even was able to really kick Geo-Force's butt. Heck, in the moment where I managed to deal an actually pretty cool string of finishing moves, I managed to both send him flying backwards, but I also struck him in the face hard enough to dislodge his goggles and hood."

At the sound of the last words, all five of the main Titans' eyes widened once again. Even Robin was now clearly interested, for he knew perfectly well that important secrets could be revealed with the removal of a mask. "And?" he then asked in clear nervous anticipation.

Terra sighed, now clearly starting to get nervous. It was this beginning change in outward mood that had the Titans realize that she was now starting to reach the point where she unveiled her big secret, and was beginning to get terrified out of her wits about what would happen as a result of revealing it. Aqualad, meanwhile, just remained standing where he was, directing a supportive look of pride and acceptance on his own face as he, like his friends, waited patiently for Terra to brave her way through her current hesitance and let them all know just what had caused her to be so shaken up following her battle, and apparent victory, against Geo-Force.

Then Terra closed her eyes, inhaled, lifted her head up high, and then exhaled. Seconds later, with her face noticeably tensing up as if in determination, she opened her eyes, and all five of the main Titans could see it in her eyes that she was truly ready. "And after he talked for a little while in ways that made me suspect very heavily as to who he might be as well as make himself seem very unnervingly familiar to me, he let me see his face. And Raven," she turned her head to focus directly at the sorceress. "What you said just now before Robin finally decided to put aside his earlier suspicions just now . . . you were on the right track."

Beast Boy's eyes widened and his face nearly turned literally snow white with horror. "HE'S YOUR FATHER?!"

In a flash, Terra, Aqualad, and all four of the changeling's teammates directed stern glares at him, clearly not amused at his comically inappropriate overreaction. "No Beast Boy," said Terra. "He's not my father."

"Oh," said Beast Boy. "Phew, that's good. I mean, I'm not the best at estimating ages by appearance, but even I'm pretty sure that he's way too young to be a father, let alone yours."

"Well thank goodness you have _that_ tiny little bit of common sense," said Raven. Beast Boy, feeling that this time was actually a moment in which he'd deserved that jibe, chose to let it slide.

Terra sighed, shook her side to side with her eyes closed as if to clear her thoughts. "But anyway," she then said. "Geo-Force, while not my father, is closely related to me. In fact, . . ."

She lifted her head to face her five former teammates once more, her eyes open with her earlier look of determination in them yet again. "He's my brother."

Terra hung her head, now suddenly too afraid to meet her former team mates' eyes, or even to turn around to look at Aqualad. "And worse," she then said in a half fearful and half heartbroken tone, "it's not Gregor. It's Bryan." She sniffled, now on the verge of tears, and waited for Aqualad and the Jump City Titans to react. And in the brief silence that followed, she found herself feeling increasingly nervous as she waited for them to yell at her, or turn their backs, or storm out of the cave and leave her to waste away in the caverns all alone.

Then she heard Beast Boy come to a stop right in front of her, apparently having just now walked up to her. And then she found herself completely stunned when, instead of yelling at her or likewise reacting in any of the negative ways she'd been fearing and expecting, he instead wrapped her up in a big hug.

For Terra, time seemed to stop as she found herself awkwardly standing in position with her eyes widened, her jaw hanging open, and her arms hanging awkwardly by her sides as Beast Boy maintained his hug. Eventually, the former geomancer finally managed to very slowly and awkwardly return the changeling's gesture. But even then, she was still stunned silly at how very differently he'd reacted compared to how she'd been expecting.

As if she hadn't been shocked enough by his current behavior, the words Beast Boy said not too long after she initiated a hug of her own really took the cake. "Terra," said the shapeshifter. "Forget every single negative thing I ever said to you over the last few days. Forget all the tension and drama that's happened between you, me, and the rest of us. Forget it all. I should have said this long before now, but I am so sorry."

Terra was left completely lost for words. She barely even noticed when Beast Boy finally let go of Terra and moved back away from her. She was that stunned. Then she was shocked back down to Earth when she heard Robin say, "What he said." She directed her gaze back in that direction just in time to see Robin and Beast Boy standing there with a shared look of acceptance on their faces while Starfire, Cyborg, and even Raven nodded their heads in apparent agreement.

Terra could barely think. She was still that stunned at how her former team mates were reacting to her very earthshaking confession. "You mean," she managed to say. "You're . . . you're not . . . up . . . upset?"

Her five former team mates shook their heads. "No," said Robin. "Under different circumstances, maybe we would be. But at this point, we're done with getting upset so easily over matters involving you. This team's been through enough drama already in your regard, and its high time we move on from that."

"Robin's right," said Cyborg. "And besides, we're not really ones to judge. Not anymore. And especially not when it comes to the kind of thing you've just told us about."

Raven nodded her head. "Indeed," said the gray skinned teenage sorceress. "We've already dealt with worse secrets and dramas over the past few years since you became a statue. And with all that in mind, we know better now than to be that quick to assume the worst. Trust me, there are worse villains you could be related to. Believe me, I know."

Beast Boy nodded his head. "Yeah Terra. And like I said, I've practically already let out all the anger I had left to throw at you. Even if I wanted to be angry at you over that bombshell you just now dropped on us, I just don't have it in me anymore after what happened between us yesterday."

Then Starfire stepped forward and placed her hand on Terra's shoulder, a half sad and half joyous smile on her face, and in that instant Terra knew that she truly did have nothing to fear. After all, she knew just as well as anyone else how nearly impossible it was for Starfire to hide her emotions. If she'd held any ill will towards Terra at all in this current moment, she would definitely have either already shown it by now or at the very least be acting angrily towards Terra. And the fact that neither she, nor the other Titans, were reacting in an angry manner was just enough proof for Terra to finally smile in relief and joy. "They're not angry at all," she thought to herself. "I've just told them one of my newest and most earthshaking secrets I ever could have told them, and they've accepted me for it this time. They truly are willing to let me be their friend again."

Sure enough, Starfire's smile warmed up into an entirely happy smile, and she then said, "We've already let go of all our grievances we had with you friend Terra. The only one who still allows the atmosphere of drama to maintain hold at this moment is you. Let it go Terra. It matters not that the Geo-Force villain is your brother. You've already proven yourself to be different now from the lost and afraid wanderer who was so easily lead astray by Slade. You've changed now, and have become better now. And we are willing to let the bygones be the bygones so that we can all be friends again."

Terra smiled, tears of joy starting to come up in her eyes at how very lucky she was. Then she felt Aqualad place his own hand on her other shoulder from behind, and she turned her head to look in his direction just in time to see him directing his own look of understanding and acceptance on his face. And in that moment, she knew that he too was willing to look past her newly dropped bombshell so as to continue seeing her as the friend he'd already come to view her as.

"Starfire's right Terra," said the Atlantean. "All of them are. No matter what happened back then, and regardless of what happens now, we're finished with the drama. We're willing to give you a real chance. And believe me, it's gonna take a whole lot more at this point than you being related to Geo-Force for our opinion of you to be reduced as low as it used to be." He leaned his head forward. "Whatever happens, we're gonna be there for you Terra. 100% friends this time." He then let a small smile come on his face. "Besides, you managed to come back to the light when you were swayed over by Slade. We may yet get the opportunity to bring Geo-Force back to being the good and noble Bryan you used to know."

Terra smiled widely at Aqualad, her eyes almost dazzling with joy. Then she hung her head, her face taking on an unhappy look once again as she thought of the current state her brother was in. "Thanks Aqualad," she managed to say. She sighed. "Thank you, all of you. I really appreciate this, and I'm so very grateful for letting me still be your friend after what I just told you. I really am."

She turned her head so that it was facing the direction of the five main Titans once again, albeit still hanging to face her the ground and her feet. "And believe me," the former geomancer continued. "You have no idea how much I'm hoping that Bryan . . . I mean, Geo-Force, can be saved and brought back to the good side. Look, I know that in the event that proves impossible, we'll have to send him to jail or worse. But you've gotta understand, as evil as he may or may not be right now, he's still my brother." She tensed up, seemingly on the verge of tears. "I'm not sure if I can even properly describe in words how much I'm hoping, begging, and praying that he isn't actually evil. That perhaps his current behavior is actually just a result of black mail, or deep cover, or mind control, or . . ."

"Mind control?" Cyborg abruptly asked.

Terra, Aqualad, and the other Titans promptly directed their attention towards Cyborg, all of them quite confused as to why Cyborg had so abruptly commented on that seemingly minor detail from what Terra had been saying. "Yes," said Terra. "I said mind control. Why do you ask?"

Cyborg thought to himself, grumbling in a low voice as if trying to remember something. Then his face brightened up in a 'eureka' facial expression. Clearly, he'd managed to remember the significance behind his earlier question. "You guys remember that phone call I had to reschedule yesterday?"

Robin raised his eyebrow, and the other Titans looked each other in the eyes in confusion. "What's that have to do with all this?" Robin asked.

Cyborg took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "I believe you still remember that octopus dragon thing that almost ate Aqualad during his journey to Jump City to tell us about this whole mess?"

"Certainly won't be forgetting that thing in a hurry," Aqualad responded. He then shuddered as he remembered how very close he'd come to being finished off by the monster in question and how very narrowly the Titans had managed to prevent it from taking him out, killing them, and destroying Jump City.

"Well the call I received yesterday was from that facility we had it sent to after we'd defeated it," Cyborg continued.

"Why's that important?" Robin asked.

"Getting to that part Robin, getting to that part Robin," said Cyborg. He took another deep breath, exhaled, and resumed where he'd left off. "Now I managed to call them back this morning, and here's the thing. Throughout the entire time it's spent at the facility, the monster has acted nothing like the way it did when we encountered it."

Aqualad, Terra, and the other four Titans all raised their eyebrows in a mixture of surprise and confusion. "What are you saying?" Robin asked.

"I'm saying," said Cyborg, "that apparently, ever since it finally woke up after we knocked it out with that big time zapping we gave it, it's actually been acting peaceful and friendly, almost like an overgrown puppy! In fact, the only times it has ever shown signs of aggression have been either when it's been in hunting mode during feeding time, or when acting territorial. Other than those times, it hasn't acted at _all_ the way it did when it was chasing Aqualad and doing battle with us."

At last the full import of what Cyborg was saying reached the Titans, and their eyes widened. "Then how?" Aqualad asked. "Or more importantly, why?"

Cyborg pressed a series of keys on his right arm, and brought up a series of images. "Well apparently, the scientists at the facility were wondering the same thing. So they ran a few tests. And in the process, they discovered these." He showed his friends the images he'd just opened. The images in question appeared to be of what looked like some mysterious nanotech devices floating around in what appeared to be areas completely filled with a very obviously red liquid. "These are pictures of the interior of the monster's bloodstream, and turns out, these tiny little devices floating around in there appear to be some sort of microscopic mind control technology."

The Titans' eyes, if at all possible, widened even further upon hearing this information. "You mean," said Starfire, "the entire time, that thing was being mind controlled into attacking us against its will?"

Cyborg nodded his head. "If that's how you like to interpret it, then yes."

For a brief moment, Aqualad, Terra, and most of the other Titans thought to themselves in stunned silence. Then they all turned their heads towards Beast Boy, certain that he'd be very happy about how very easy it would likely be for the creature to be taken care of and that it would likely not have to be killed. But upon turning their heads and actually seeing Beast Boy, they were more than a little stunned upon seeing the wide eyed and stunned 'eureka' look that they found on his face instead.

"Oh my God," said Beast Boy. "I just thought of something!"

"What?" Raven asked. The others were likewise interested.

Beast Boy looked over at Cyborg. "How does that stuff work?"

Cyborg looked over his images of the technology in question. "Well from what the scientists told me," Cyborg began, "apparently, you have to first implant the technology into the body of the desired host through means of a surgery. Once implanted, turns out, the area these little devices are currently floating around in aren't actually their natural designated location. In fact, once implanted, they're designed to attach themselves onto the host's nervous system." He looked over at Terra. "Kind of like the implants in that suit Slade had you wear."

Terra winced, her eyes closed at the unpleasant memory. "Please don't remind me."

"Oh right," said Cyborg, a sheepish look on his face. "Sorry." He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "But the point is, that specific part of the body is where this mind control technology is supposed to be attached. Once implanted and attached, all that needs to be done is for the tech to be activated. And from that point onward, the tech can be controlled through either remotely operated controls, or even through telepathy, to allow for complete 100% control over the host's mind and body, allowing the controller to make it do whatever it is commanded."

Beast Boy nodded, processing the information. "In that case, why is the tech inside the monster currently detached from its nervous system?"

"Well here's the thing," Cyborg explained. "While the tech can be easily shut off by the same means used to activate it, there's also a permanent way to shut it down. The method in question? Electrocuting the host. Apparently, according to the scientists back at that facility, if the host is exposed to a sufficient amount of electricity, the technology is designed to both shut down and detach from the host's nervous system. And once that happens, not only is the tech rendered incapable of reattaching itself to the nervous system, but it is also permanently shut down. And as for how the tech ends up left behind to float around in the blood stream, the scientists also say that the tech appears to be designed to harmlessly dissolve into the blood stream over time. Though just how long it takes for the tech to dissolve is currently theorized by the scientists to vary depending on the size and type of host in which the tech is contained." He looked back over at Beast Boy. "Does any of that information help?"

Beast Boy thought to himself, and then nodded his head with his eyes closed. Clearly, the information had just helped apparently confirm whatever it was he'd currently been thinking about. He looked over at Aqualad. "Aqualad," he then said, "remember how Geo-Force kept saying something about him being converted by his master and how the plan was for the Titans East members to be converted in the same way?"

Aqualad nodded his head. "Yes."

"Well here's what I was just now thinking," said Beast Boy. "Let's assume that the monster that we had to save you from back at Jump City Beach was sent directly by this master of Geo-Force's to take you out. If that's the case, then likely this same master was responsible for implanting the mind control stuff into the monster and controlling it. And that being said, what if the conversion that's kept getting referred to is actually the master implanting that very same tech that was in the monster inside Geo-Force?"

In the silence that followed, even a person without Beast Boy's sense of hearing would have been able to hear a pin drop. The silence was eventually broken when Robin said, "This changes everything."

"No kidding," Terra agreed. But while her outward appearance showed signs of being stunned silly, she was mentally celebrating at the very real hope that she'd just now been provided of her apparently villainous brother possibly not actually being so willingly villainous after all.

"I know right?" said Beast Boy. "And better yet, that would also explain why Geo-Force and his master want the Titans East members alive! I mean, assuming that Geo-Force actually is being mind controlled, let alone with that same tech that was being used on that monster, then by saying how the plan is for the Titans East members to be converted just like him, he also means that . . ."

"The master plans to have the mind control tech implanted inside them to," Aqualad finished.

"Exactly," said Beast Boy. He directed his head to Aqualad. "Not to mention inside you as well."

Aqualad nodded somberly. "Indeed he does," he then stated.

"And Geo-Force would make a perfect host for this specific tech," said Raven. The other Titans, plus Aqualad and Terra turned their heads to look at Raven. "You said that the tech could only be permanently shut down by electrocuting the host right?"

"Yep," said Cyborg.

"Well as has been demonstrated in both the encounter Titans East had with Geo-Force back at their tower, and in our first battle with him back at Steel City, Geo-Force is immune to electricity."

"Which would mean that he would be likely be incapable of being easily set free from the mind control's influence," said Aqualad. He then shook his head side to side. "Good grief this master of Geo-Force's is really starting to sound very annoyingly clever."

Terra, however, had another stunned look on her face, seemingly as if she'd just remembered something. "That actually reminds me of something."

Aqualad and the Titans all looked over at Terra. The former geomancer took a deep breath, exhaled, and then looked over at her friends. "When I saw Geo-Force's face without his mask on earlier, the fact that he's actually my brother Bryan wasn't the only thing I learned. The sight of his face, plus a few comments he made managed to trigger the awakening of the last of my memories that were still in hibernation."

This information was more than enough to ensure the Titans' interest. "Go on," said Beast Boy.

"Among these memories," Terra began, "was how Geo-Force and I managed to get our powers in the first place." She took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "About a couple months before all that drama began with the queen and the point in which I ended up leaving to relocate to America, the people of Markovia, particularly the barons and other relatively minor ruling officials were beginning to get concerned about how they had to rely on all the non-native heroes of the Justice League to keep their part of the world safe and decided that it would be helpful for them to have their own native superhero to help keep Markovia safe so as to reduce their reliance on the Justice League and promote patriotism for their country. They also believed that, due to both a noticeable lack of terrakinetic superheroes and how the people of Markovia have a natural respect for the earth as a result of the borders being completely surrounded by mountains, it would be a good idea for any Markovian originating superheroes to be geomancers."

Terra took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "There was one scientist, Helga Jace, that was willing to try to artificially produce such powers, and she believed that it would be especially patriotic for the first native superheroes of Markovia to be among the royal family, and so she allowed the king and queen the chance to allow for Gregor, Bryan, and me the chance to be subjected to the tests and experiments that would have to be undergone."

At the sound of this, Raven couldn't help but notice a small glare come on Beast Boy's face, combined with the changeling clenching his fists. Then Raven directed her attention back to Terra, filing how she'd just seen Beast Boy react for later. Now was not the time to ask about whatever other matters were now troubling Beast Boy in regard to what Terra had just mentioned.

Terra continued speaking, seemingly not noticing how Beast Boy had just reacted to the information about tests and experimenting being involved. "Bryan and I jumped to the call. Gregor, however, said no. As he put it, he was already going to be king, and he thought that to be more than enough glory for him to have. And also, again as he put it, since he'd already been chosen to be the king, it was best for him to avoid joining us in the experiments so that at least one of us would stay alive to be the ruler in the event that things went south during the experimentation." At the sound of this, Aqualad and the Titans all found themselves swearing and growling mentally at Gregor Markov's blunt callous dismissiveness towards the very potentially dangerous circumstances that his siblings had been about to undergo at the time.

"And so," Terra continued, "Bryan and I were subjected to Dr. Jace's experiments. Over time, real progress was made, and our powers began to develop inside us." She took a deep breath, and then exhaled again. "However," she continued, "at the time I left Markovia and relocated to America to live with my maternal aunt and uncle, Dr. Jace hadn't yet had the time to perfect my powers and finish the experiments on me. Bryan, however, was able to complete the process entirely."

Starfire's eyes widened, and she hurriedly raised her hand as if asking for a turn to speak. Terra granted Starfire this opportunity, and the Tamaranean said, "That must have been why you were unable to control your powers as well as you brother can."

"Exactly," said Terra. "I hadn't had the time for my own powers to be perfected and allowed the chance for me to properly develop the ability to properly be in tune with them and keep them under control. Bryan, as has been demonstrated, has no such problem. And in fact, he's actually so resistant to electricity as a result of his powers, that I remember he once got struck point blank by a dangerously super charged bolt of lightning back in Markovia, and he was left only mildly dazed." She directed her attention to all six of her friends. "But at the same time, the fact that I wasn't able to undergo the entire process also turned out to be somewhat of a blessing in disguise. Here's something else that I now remember. While Geo-Force turned out to be able to control his powers better than I could, that same full control came with a price. He has to maintain direct contact with the earth in at least some capacity in order to stay properly healthy. In fact, he can't even ride on any means of civilian air or sea travel without having dirt or some other form of earth-based material in his pocket or likewise touching him somehow, otherwise he runs the risk of either becoming severely ill or even dying."

Beast Boy whistled in shock. "Yikes," he then said. "That's gotta suck."

Raven, however, raised her eyebrow. "How did you manage to remember that?"

Terra thought to herself, not entirely certain now how to answer, but then Robin spared her the agony. "I think I know how." He opened up his communicator and accessed its internet capabilities. "I forget to mention this earlier, but when the name Geo-Force was first ever brought up back at Jump City beach, I actually found the name seeming to be pretty familiar to me for some reason. But it wasn't until now that I finally realized why." He accessed an internet file and got things set up so that Terra, Aqualad, and the other Titans could see it as well. "Turns out," the Boy Wonder began as he showed the file to his friends, "not only was this Helga Jace's efforts 100% successful at allowing Geo-Force and Terra to develop their powers, but Geo-Force actually did manage to become Markovia's first and currently only native-born superhero." And indeed this information proved correct, for the file that Robin and the others were now witnessing was an online news article detailing an incident a few years prior in which Geo-Force had managed to save an entire school's worth of faculty and students from a terrible fire, and even had an image of Geo-Force heroically flying through the sky aboard a floating boulder while carrying two ten-year old looking children in his arms and a heroic smile on his face.

"And not only that," Robin then continued. "But he's also Markovia's official local ambassador for the Justice League. In fact, he even once went through training with Batman so as to both better control his own powers, be willing and able to follow orders without being consulted about his own opinion, and to properly work as a member of a team as opposed to working better on his own and always being used to getting his own way as would be expected for a prince."

The other Titans were quite surprised to hear about this information. "How come you never remembered all this information till now?" Cyborg asked.

Robin sighed, and hung his head. "Let's just say that I've tried my best not to think about or dwell on my time with Batman for a long time," the Boy Wonder replied. The other Titans were confused by this statement, but mercifully decided not to press the issue.

Terra nodded her head. "In that case, this would mean it actually make even more sense for Geo-Force to be under the effects of mind control or similarly not truly being evil. After all, from what Robin said, since he was already working as a superhero, it would be awfully left field for him to become evil so seemingly without a motive."

"Indeed," Robin agreed. "In fact, now I also remember something else." He accessed another internet file. "This came about two or three months ago." The article in question detailed about Geo-Force reportedly mysteriously going missing without a trace and that Markovia was both in mourning for his disappearance and praying heavily for him to be safely found and returned. "And with all this new information now available for us to consider, I'm starting to think that maybe this mysterious disappearance was actually Geo-Force either going after whatever villain is currently serving as his master or being outright abducted by said master. And in the time that's passed between this disappearance and his current attacks here at Steel City, he must have been either been training with his master or getting used to having the mind control tech inside of him."

Terra thought to herself, and then nodded. "That does all make sense," she admitted. Then she looked at her five former teammates, a small smile on her face now. "And if he is in fact under the effects of this mind control technology, then indeed he could yet have a chance at actually not being naturally evil and brought back to the light." Then she hung her head with a small look of sadness on her face. "Though admittedly, it will be very awfully difficult to set him free considering the only reportedly known method for permanently shutting down the technology is something that won't work on him."

Aqualad positioned himself so that he was standing in the same area as the five main Titans, and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Don't you dare worry about that Terra," the Atlantean said when Terra turned her head to directly face him. "He may be immune to the easiest way we know of that could set him free, but that doesn't mean he's beyond hope of saving. I'm sure that if given the chance, we could easily find other ways to set him free. And at the very least, since we will now be giving him the benefit of the doubt for being potentially under the influence of mind control and not willingly being evil, I'd say that more likely than not, we'll now do battle with him with the intent of at the very least knocking him out and only beating him up just enough to take him down without killing him or severely injuring him."

"You've got that right Aqualad," said Robin. He and the other Titans then smiled at Terra. "But regardless of how all this unfolds, know that we're gonna be there for you every step of the way. You've earned the right for us to give you a true chance at being our friend again. And we're gonna stay your friends now to the bitter end. And if there's any chance that we can save your brother now after all this information we've just gotten, then by God, we're gonna take it. You were able to break yourself free from the darkness of villainy, and if we have anything to say about it, so will your brother. Of that, we swear by the roots of the mightiest mountain in Markovia."

"We swear it!" the other Titans all shouted in unison.

"I swear it," said Aqualad. "By both the roots of the mightiest mountain in Markovia, and on Poseidon's honor."

For the briefest of moments, Terra was rendered stunned speechless by all this. But then a small smile came on her face, and she found herself on the verge of breaking down into tears of joy. In spite of all her fears from earlier, Aqualad and the Titans had still chosen to remain her friends and trust her. And even better, there now seemed to be a truly legitimate perfect chance at saving her brother and breaking him free from the darkness just like she herself had managed. She closed her eyes, both smiling outwardly and euphorically celebrating on the inside. "Thank you," she thought to herself. "By God, thank you. Regardless of what happens, I promise I'll always work my hardest to always do the right thing and stay worthy of being a friend to all these wonderful people. Let my brother be saved, and I swear that I'll never consciously let myself be branded a villain again." And that was a promise she had every intention of keeping.

 **And just like that, another chapter comes to an end! To be honest, I actually feel quite proud of myself for how this chapter turned out, and I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I've now enjoyed writing it and posting it! ^_^ But nonetheless, please do leave plenty of feedback for both this chapter and the chapters that came before this one (CleoArrow, Avian, and JasonVUK, I'm looking at YOU). Like I said, I'd like to have at the very least ONE review posted for this chapter by the time I've finished the next chapter before I post it. Again, hope you enjoyed this chapter, and that you leave a respectful amount of feedback/reviews! ^_^**

 **Coming up Next: Speedy has made major progress in getting things set up so that it will be slightly easier for Aqualad and the Titans when they enact their rescue plan. The other captive Titans, likewise, are ready for action. But just how long can they continue to avoid allowing their current progress from being found out by Cheshire, and through her, Geo-Force? And better yet, as was heavily discussed between Aqualad and the Jump City Titan boys earlier, just how will Aqualad and the Titans even get into Titans Tower East now in the first place? And what about Geo-Force? In spite of what he himself may think, just how strongly affected is he being by his encounter with Terra and his subsequent reawakening of the memory of her being his sister? Find out, in the exciting next chapter of Geo-Force!**


	15. An Escape in Progress

**Hey ya'll! Guess what!? Today, I present you, a new chapter! And WOW, it's only been three days, as of today, since the previous chapter I posted! I must really be on a roll right now! ^_^ Heck, I actually had this chapter completed LAST NIGHT, but since I was so very tired at the time I had it finished and at that point better off going to bed (with that particular time being around my bedtime), I chose to post it today instead. And here you go! Very much hoping that you read, review, and enjoy! In this chapter, as it turns out, Speedy and the other captive members of Titans East have made quite a joy-worthy amount of progress in setting things up for an eventual escape! However, just how long will they be able to keep this progress hidden over the course of a very tense visit from Cheshire? And for that matter, just how will Aqualad, Terra, and the Titans even be able to get into the Titans East Tower in the first place? Well prepare to find out, in this new chapter!**

 **A/N: Real quick, just to sort out my legal bases, I do not own Teen Titans, or anything else DC based. Got that? Good. Here goes!**

 **Chapter 14:**

 **An Escape in Progress**

Meanwhile, at the exact same time that the Titans had been gathered together in the campsite cavern of their temporary cave hideout before their meeting in the tunnels, Speedy and the other captive members of Titans East were still remaining where they were inside their makeshift imprisonment. At the current moment, Speedy was carefully examining the makeshift cage bar that he'd been diligently sawing away at with the spear he'd been unwittingly 'gifted' with by Cheshire so many days prior. In fact, as of earlier that morning, he'd actually managed to saw off a sufficiently large portion that would allow for an opening perfectly big enough for him to use as an exit. All he'd need to do now would be to push the segment he'd sawed lose forward sufficiently enough, and he'd be out of his cage and free as a bird. And he already knew that for a fact as a direct result of having personally checked and tried it out himself.

But of course, even though he now had a means of escape prepared, he wasn't about to go ahead and use it and try to spring his fellow captives free yet, let alone try to do battle with Cheshire and Geo-Force on his own. As egotistical as he tended to act at times, he was quite smart when he needed to be, and he knew the value that came with waiting for the opportune moment. And in this case, he believed that the opportune moment would be when Aqualad and the Jump City Titans arrived. Granted, as of the current moment, he and the other captives now had only the remainder of the current day, plus one more full day and exactly half of a day after that before Geo-Force's mysterious master arrived. But even so, he had a strong feeling that, in the end, Aqualad and the Jump City Titans would arrive in time to save them before Geo-Force's villainous hidden master arrived.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to keep waiting like this?"

Speedy sighed, and looked over at Bumblebee. The winged metahuman leader of Titans East had long since recovered from the damaging of her wings a couple days prior, and was now able to both talk and stay properly awake and conscious as opposed to being half comatose from pain. And in fact, her wings had also recovered to the point that they would likely be able to successfully support her weight, if only for at least a couple minutes or so, by the very next day. But of course, she wasn't about to let Cheshire or Geo-Force be aware of that detail.

"Look Bumblebee," said Speedy. "I get it, you're worried. Anyone would be in circumstances like these. But trust me, I know Robin well, and he hasn't given up. And quite frankly, he never _will_ give up. Believe me, Robin, Aqualad, and the other Titans will get here and come up with a proper plan in time to get us out of here and help us take down Geo-Force. I promise you that."

Bumblebee sighed. "Look Speedy, I understand how you feel. And believe me, I'm not giving up on our friends." She then looked up towards her stony hand restraints that were both keeping her restrained and holding her above the chasm beneath her. "But right now, I'm gonna need a whole lot more than promises considering how little time we've got left before Rock Boy's nightmare master arrives to have his way with us."

"Si," said Mas. "Yo no sé ustedes, pero yo prefiero que siga sin quedar aquí en el momento de su maestro supone en llegar."

"Lo que dijo," Menos agreed.

Speedy took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "Like I said, I understand that you're worried. Believe me, I'm just as worried and concerned as you guys are." He extended his arms as if in a placatory gesture. "I'm not suggesting that we still be sitting around waiting in here by the time Geo-Force's master arrives. No way. All I'm asking is that we just wait for a little bit longer before giving up on Aqualad and the Jump City Titans. And believe me, in the, very unlikely I may add, event that Aqualad, Robin, and the other Titans from Jump City fail to arrive here and spring us out by 6:30 in the evening tomorrow, then I will be more than happy to give the all clear for us to go ahead and spring ourselves out of here and go searching for them before teaming up to take down Geo-Force. But until such a necessity is reached, all I ask is that we just keep up hope. Comprende?"

At the sound of that last word, Bumblebee's eyes widened in shock, as did those of the two twins. "You . . . you just spoke Spanish," said Bumblebee.

Speedy grinned cockily. "I'm not fluent," Speedy admitted. "But I've still managed to pick up a thing or two in all the time I've spent with Mas and Menos."

"Gracias a Dios por eso," said Mas.

"De hecho mi hermano," stated Menos.

Speedy smiled. "Heck," he then said, "the only parts I got out of that were 'thanks', 'God,' and 'brother'."

Mas and Menos looked each other in the eyes from across the chasm separating them, happy that Speedy was still being heartwarming. Even Bumblebee found herself smiling with a small tone of confidence. After all, it wasn't every day that Speedy so willingly showed the softer and more caring side that he was currently showing. "With Speedy in this good of a mood, maybe we do truly stand a chance," she thought to herself.

Then the relative silence in the air was effectively broken at the unmistakable sound of footsteps coming from somewhere near the top of the stairs leading down to the basement, and all four of the captives' eyes widened in alarm. Someone was coming, and they had a pretty good feeling at the moment that it was not Aqualad or any of the Jump City Titans. Speedy hurriedly directed his gaze towards his fellow captive friends. "Quick, get into character," he whispered. The other three captives nodded, and took a couple deep breaths with their eyes closed before they then had their faces settle in a stoic and somber tone. Speedy nodded, a small smile on his face, and then allowed a similar tone to come on his own face. There were only two people already in the area that he knew would be the most likely to be currently on the way to visit, and neither one of those people would be the right person to show any sign of hope or happiness in the presence of. And the last thing he and his friends needed was for their current state of progress towards potential escape and rebellion, let alone the small steps that he himself had already made in setting the stage for an escape, to be found out.

The doors at the top of the stairs leading down to the basement opened, and the four Titans East members mentally held their breath as they listened to the sound of footsteps descending said stairway. In that moment, they both found themselves wondering who was coming down to visit them. Was it Cheshire the way it usually was? Or would this be a notably rare instance in which Geo-Force himself decided to let Cheshire have a break and come out of his cave to visit them himself? Either way, they would have to be careful.

The figure reached the bottom of the stairs and walked through the open doorway at the bottom leading directly into the basement proper, and was thus revealed to be Cheshire. All four of the captives partially released their pent up mental breaths, but nonetheless remained on guard, and kept their masks of stoic somberness firmly in place.

Cheshire noticed the looks on the faces of the four captives, and allowed a small grin to come on her face from underneath her mask. "Well, well, well," she then said. "I guess it's just gonna be another one of those days huh?" The four Titans glared at her in response, not giving anything anyway. Cheshire chuckled. "Apparently so."

The masked girl stepped forward further into the room, casually glancing around at the four prisoners. "I have to admit," she eventually said upon reaching the edge of the chasm that Bumblebee was dangling over, "I wasn't expecting you lot to become so quiet around me all the time. Knowing you, I was expecting you to put up a bigger fight." She lifted her head up to directly face Bumblebee. "You haven't given up already, have you?"

Bumblebee's eyes narrowed. "Oh we haven't given up," said the winged metahuman teenager. "Not in the slightest. We're just holding in our fight for when Fish Boy and our pals from Jump City arrive. We're gonna want to have as much energy and spirit in us as possible for when we all team up and kick your but, not to mention send good ol' Dusty Pants packing."

Cheshire chuckled, her grin widening under her mask. "Well you'll be waiting a pretty long while then," said the masked girl.

Menos stuck his tongue out at Cheshire. "Eso es lo que piensas!" he then shouted.

Mas growled silently. "Lo que usted puede pensar, vamos a salir de esta. Y cuando lo hacemos, nunca se sabe lo que golpeó!"

Cheshire chuckled again. "No idea what you're saying kiddos," said the former teen assassin. "But it had better be begging for mercy. Because boy are you going to be wishing for it when my real boss arrives." The two Spanish speaking twin speedsters stuck out their tongues, but Cheshire only laughed.

Speedy narrowed his own eyes at Cheshire. As full of hidden depths as she'd hinted herself to be days earlier, he wasn't going to let her get away with acting the way she currently was towards his friends that easily. "Oh we'll be long gone by the time that day comes. I can promise you that."

"Please," Cheshire scoffed, "even I know that it's best not to make promises you can't keep." She turned around to face the ginger haired archer. "And believe me, as much as you bragged about me not knowing a thing about to properly make you suffer with the torture techniques I have at my disposal, the skills my boss has at _his_ disposal will make you _wish_ that I was the one torturing you instead . . ."

Cheshire abruptly paused, and for almost a complete minute remained deathly silent as she continued staring right at Speedy. Or at least, she appeared to be staring straight at Speedy. But then her next words confirmed that she'd actually been looking in a slightly different direction from underneath her mask. "What's that?" she then asked.

Speedy raised his eyebrow. "What's what?"

"That thing," Cheshire hissed.

Speedy's eyes narrowed again in a mixture of confusion and anger. "What thing?" he then asked.

"Don't play dumb," Cheshire responded in an almost growling tone. "That thing sticking out from behind that pile of stones behind you. What is it?"

Speedy glared at Cheshire in response. "Nice try kitty cat," said the archer. "But I really don't know what you're talking about, and if you really think I'm gonna fall for that old trick, then newsflash, I wasn't born yester. . ." He abruptly found himself floundering and ceasing his own comment when he saw the wide eyed looks of shock and alarm on the faces of Bumblebee and the twins as they too looked in the direction that Cheshire was apparently now looking.

He raised his eyebrow. "What are you guys looking at?"

Bumblebee said nothing, clearly too stunned and preoccupied with whatever she was looking at to respond. Menos, likewise remained silent and motionless. Mas, however, went so far as to discreetly raise up his right arm and surreptitiously point his finger three times in the direction that his brother, Bumblebee, Cheshire, and himself were looking, his face silently screaming for Speedy to look in that same direction. Speedy turned his head to face this direction with a confused glare still on his face, only for his eyes to then widen in horror at the sight of what had attracted the attention of Cheshire and his teammates. Lying around, sticking out from the right side of the cairn in question, was the unmistakable razor sharp diamond-edged tip of the spear he'd managed to 'borrow' from Cheshire and use to set things into motion for the eventual escape.

As if to further sink in how much trouble he and the other captive members of Titans East were now in, Speedy then heard Cheshire pointedly ask, "Is that my spear?"

Speedy mentally swore, cursing himself for what was now happening. On the day he'd first managed to be unwittingly granted possession of the spear, and over the course of the first couple days following that day, he'd made sure to always be very careful in how he handled the spear and how he timed his usage of it, even going so far as to carefully and delicately remove the one stone near the bottom of the cairn and slip the spear gently into the interior of the cairn before replacing said stone. But in the subsequent days in between the last such day of his more careful way of working with the spear and this current moment, he had gotten careless. And in the process, he'd gone so far as to just casually toss the spear over his shoulder so that it merely landed directly behind the cairn (which was actually perfectly big enough to completely mask it from view) whenever he'd finished using it for whatever moment he'd deemed a good time for its use. And only now, very belatedly, did he remember how he could have sworn he'd briefly heard a small tapping noise as if the spear had clacked against something before hearing the usual sound it made when it landed. "I've gotten more careless with that thing now than I thought," he growled bitterly to himself in his mind. "It must have bounced off the top of the cairn and gotten knocked out of position so that it would land in a way that would allow it to not be completely hidden behind the stones."

Then Speedy finally turned his head to face Cheshire again, and his face very noticeably took on an 'oh crap' expression as he saw the very tensed up position the masked former teen assassin had now taken. He and the other captive members of Titans East were now in real hot water, and boy did he know it.

"That _is_ my spear!" Cheshire snarled. "I can't believe it! All this time, I thought it had perhaps been thrown into that chasm right here or similarly gotten lost. But you had it all this time!" She then reared up, then snapped her head around to face one of the bars of Speedy's makeshift cage. And not just any bar, but the very same one that Speedy had spent the last few days meticulously sawing away with the spear. "I _thought_ there was something off about that one bar in your cage!"

In a flash, things turned from bad to worse when Cheshire darted straight towards the bar, getting a running start before then sailing the last few feet between her and the rocky pillar through means of a flying ninja kick. Her foot slammed against the outward facing side of the segment that had been sawed loose with a very audible pounding noise, sending the segment in question skidding backwards and out of position before it then toppled over onto its side with a bang. No sooner had the segment of pillar toppled over and landed when it then very slowly rolled towards Speedy before coming to a stop practically centimeters away from him. For what seemed like an eternity, Speedy found himself staring intently at the segment he'd sawed lose, seemingly absorbing just how much trouble he and his captive friends were now in. Then he snapped out his dazed trance, and looked back towards Cheshire, only to mentally sweat drop when he saw that Cheshire had now walked right through the exposed gap and was now standing right there inside his cage with him with the just as clearly exposed spear in her right hand. "Crap," he thought to himself in a panic. "This is not good. So not good. Definitely not good."

Cheshire tensed up into a semi-crouching position, snarling in rage, and then started running straight towards Speedy with her newly reclaimed spear at the ready. Speedy hurriedly snapped into action and started running away, even going so far as to kick the stone pillar segment he'd cut loose and send it rolling right towards the charging masked warrior. Without even faltering in the slightest in her dash, Cheshire calmly slipped the spear back into its previously long empty sheath and then proceeded to jump right over the rolling obstacle with a front flip. She landed on her palms, and then proceeded to turn the impact into a trio of somersaults. And when she came to a final landing after her third somersault in Speedy's direction, she was able to position herself so that she slid further towards Speedy while crouching on her hands and feet. And no sooner had she come to a stop in this position when she resumed running on her own two feet towards Speedy and drew her reclaimed spear back out of its sheath.

Right as Speedy was just a couple inches away from the wall of stone pillars facing the chasm, Cheshire hurled the spear in his general direction while still running towards him. The spear pounded into the pillar that was directly in front of him, leaving him screaming and forced to skid to a crashing land on his back in order to avoid causing his face to smack right into the blunt end of the weapon. He briefly looked up at the spear and gasped in shock and fear before he then hurriedly got back up on his feet and turned to face Cheshire. But unfortunately, even with how relatively quickly he'd managed to snap out of his dazed state and turn to face Cheshire, he was still too late. For mere seconds after Speedy had turned around and properly positioned himself, Cheshire landed right in front of him after having apparently covered the last of the distance with a jump, yanked the spear out of the pillar it had become embedded in, and swiped Speedy's legs out from under him with it, causing him to come crashing down hard on his back once again. Upon once again finding himself lying on his back, Speedy had just enough time to gasp in pain and tense himself up as if trying to hurriedly gather up the energy to get back up before he then felt the distinctive sensation of something pointy touching his throat, and his eyes opened wide with a frightened gasp as he then realized (and got confirmation of with his newly opened eyes) that Cheshire was now standing at his feet and had her spear positioned in a diagonal position so that the tip was now very lightly pressing up against the very center of his neck.

For what seemed like an eternity, Speedy and Cheshire remained positioned in this dangerously tense standoff, with Speedy lying around helplessly on his back and gaping in fear up towards Cheshire while the masked young woman remained tensed up and maintained her grip on the spear as she continued to hold it up against the ginger haired archer's neck. At the same time this was happening, Bumblebee and the twins remained absolutely still and silent as they gazed both fearfully and helplessly at the scene before them. As much as they wanted to do something, they knew that reacting in any way other than how they were currently acting would not only very possibly harmful to them, but also because they couldn't really do anything other than shout due to how the twins stood no chance against the now very obviously armed and dangerous Cheshire without the ability to touch each other and activate their super speed and Bumblebee herself being likewise unable to effectively fight as a result of her hands still being encased in their stalactite restraints that were currently keeping her dangling over the chasm, her wings still not yet entirely strong enough to support her weight long enough to make a difference, and her stingers still being hidden away in some undisclosed location. Thus, the tense scene continued to unfold, with absolutely no one so much as saying a single word, scarcely even daring to breath. The tension could have been sliced with contemptuous ease with Cheshire's spear.

Then Cheshire started snarling and growling as she took a series of breaths. "All this time," she growled. "All this time you were working to set things up for an escape under my own nose. All the signs were right here this entire time, and it still only took till now for me to notice." She turned her head to face Bumblebee, her eyes narrowed and a glare on her face underneath her mask. "Let me guess Insect," she hissed, "your wings are all healed up now aren't they?"

Bumblebee mentally winced at being unexpectedly directly spoken to by Cheshire in that current moment, and she briefly found herself struggling to reply.

Cheshire growled, and leaned her head threateningly in Bumblebee's direction. "AREN'T THEY?!"

Bumblebee gulped, her eyes wide, and hurriedly nodded her head. Cheshire growled, now even angrier, if that was even possible, then she'd already been before. "I'll deal with you later," she snarled. Then she looked directly at Mas and Menos. "And I'll deal with you two even later," she hissed. The two twins very audibly gulped, and turned their heads to look at each other with a shared look of nervous fear on their faces.

Cheshire snarled, turned her head to look down at Speedy once more, and then said, "Luck may have been on your side for the last few days, but your winning streak ends now; and I mean _now_." As if to emphasize her point, she slowly reached up towards her face with her left hand while keeping her right hand firmly clenched around the spear, and then, much to Speedy's shock, proceeded to grab onto the top of her mask and very slowly lift it up and off of her face before then lightly throwing it down. The mask landed delicately directly to the left of Speedy's face, and he briefly turned his head to look at the discarded mask before then looking back up straight at the now very much exposed face of Cheshire.

At the sight of the look that he could now see clear as day on the exposed face of the Vietnamese former teen assassin, Speedy mentally gulped, not so much as daring to actually gulp for real for fear of accidentally puncturing his own neck against the tip of the spear. Without the distinctive cat-like mask covering up her real face, Speedy could now see how very dangerously obviously angry she was. Her mouth was set with gritted teeth in a silent feral snarl, her very unexpectedly, almost Caucasian looking, green eyes blazing venomously with rage, and the rest of her face likewise tensed up in anger. She growled, positioned herself as if ready to push the spear up against Speedy's neck even harder, and then angrily growled, "That mask of mine may depict the face of an eternally smiling cat, but as I'm perfectly willing to let you see clear as day at this very moment, I am most certainly not smiling underneath it right now. I am _that_ angry right now. And you have no idea how lucky you are that I'm even now still letting you live in spite of how very, very, very pissed off I am right now." Speedy mentally gulped once again.

Cheshire snarled, and leaned her head further down towards Speedy. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't go running off to Geo-Force and expose all this to him this very evening!" She then leaned her head even further, very noticeably tightening her grip on the spear. "Or better yet, give me one good reason why I shouldn't just go ahead and jab this spear clean through your bloody neck right this very instant!" Speedy's eyes widened, now truly terrified at how very dangerously far south this whole situation had fallen, and for about 10 or so seconds, he remained absolutely silent, completely at a loss at what to say.

Cheshire growled, now getting even angrier at Speedy's lack of response, and she thrusted her head back down towards him again while tightening her grip on her spear even more. "ANSWER ME!" she roared. "I MEAN IT! GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON RIGHT NOW! I DON'T CARE ANYMORE WHAT GEO-FORCE AND MY BOSS SAY! HECK, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE WHAT MY BOSS'S OWN SUPERIOR WANTS WITH YOU! AND BELIEVE ME, FROM WHAT I'VE HEARD ABOUT FROM MY BOSS, I KNOW HOW VERY BAD FOR ONE'S HEALTH IT TENDS TO BE TO TRIFLE WITH HIS MALEVOLENCE! BUT LIKE I SAID, I DON'T EVEN CARE ABOUT THAT ANYMORE! I AM THAT ANGRY! AND ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THAT THIS MYSTERIOUS SUPERIOR OF MY BOSS MAY OR MAY NOT BE CAPABLE OF IS GOING TO STOP ME FROM FLAT OUT KILLING YOU RIGHT NOW AND LEAVING YOUR FELLOW CAPTIVE FRIENDS TO THE MERCY OF GEO-FORCE AND MY BOSS WITHOUT YOU GIVING ME A GOOD REASON NOT TO! YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?"

Speedy gulped, and very slightly nodded his head. "THEN I COMMAND YOU AGAIN; GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON WHY I SHOULDN'T RUN THIS SPEAR THROUGH YOUR NECK RIGHT NOW AND LEAVE YOUR FRIENDS TO SUFFER THE WRATH OF GEO-FORCE AND OUR SHARED BOSS!" Immediately after she finished yelling this last little bit of her tirade, she very delicately slightly reduced the pressure of the spear pressing against Speedy's neck so as to allow him to be able to properly respond.

For a few seconds, Speedy coughed and gasped for air in a mixture of fear and relief. After getting his breath back, he turned his head very briefly to face Bumblebee and the twins, who all still had their faces seemingly locked in their early looks of stunned horror and nervous apprehension, then he directed a sidelong glance at the still very angry and unmasked Cheshire. Then he took a deep breath, his eyes closed, exhaled, and then turned his head to directly look Cheshire in the face with his eyes open once more.

"This boss of yours," Speedy began, "or more accurately, his own superior you just recently mentioned. Did you just refer to him as 'his Malevolence'?"

Cheshire raised her eyebrow, her mouth no longer showing teeth, but still nonetheless in an angry position. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. I guess that will just have to be for me to know, and for you to never find out!"

"Wait, wait, I'm not finished!"

Cheshire very noticeably paused right as she was about to start lifting up the spear completely so as to prepare herself for jabbing it through Speedy's neck. She briefly struggled mentally to decide whether or not to let Speedy continue talking, or to just go ahead and thrust her spear through his neck and get it over with. She then sighed. "Fine, go ahead and finish. But I'm warning you, you'd better not be wasting my time."

Speedy gulped, nodded his head, and then took a deep breath before continuing. "Well I'm pretty sure that you did, and if that's the case, then assuming that your boss's superior and the guy I'm now thinking of are indeed the same being, then I have to admit, considering how much you hinted the other day of not entirely enjoying your, quote unquote, despicable actions committed, going so far as to associate with the being that your own boss refers to as his superior, even in as little and relatively indirect a capacity as you seem to be working in, is awfully low, lower then you even realize."

Cheshire's eyes narrowed in a mixture of anger, impatience, and confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"I can't entirely say for certain whether or not I even truly believed in his existence, let alone the existence of any other beings and characters first talked about within the same source as he is at first, but two months ago, thanks to some very up close and dangerously personal encounters my friend Robin and his team mates had with this guy's own direct personal underlings, I can now tell you, with confidence, both that this guy does indeed exist and exactly who he is."

"Well if you're so confident, what are you waiting for?!" Cheshire shouted. "Who is he?"

"You mean your boss never told you?" Speedy asked in a mixture of taunting smugness and genuine surprise.

"Does the fact that I'm even asking right now not enough of an answer to that?!" Cheshire snapped. "WHO IS HE?!"

"Only the vilest, darkest, most sinister, most villainous, and most unforgivable villains of all time," Speedy responded. "He's so evil, he even goes so far as to personally punish like a hypocrite all the worst villains in existence for following his same twisted example. He was evil before it was cool! Before it existed! Before it was even a concept! Or even had a name!"

Cheshire's eyes narrowed again. "STOP BEATING AROUND THE BUSH! I'M NOT IN THE MOOD FOR GAMES!"

"He used to be one of the most ardent believers in truth, justice, and light!" Speedy continued. "But then he let the very first inklings of darkness corrupt him and lead him irrevocably astray to the point that he chose to go so far as to willingly tempt others into going astray as well! Even to this day, just the mere THOUGHT of him, and in fact even his NAME alone is enough to strike fear, hopelessness, and despair into the hearts of men!"

"WHO IS HE?!" Cheshire snapped.

"Forget what you may have heard about Trigon! He is the REAL incarnation of evil! He is THE original sin! He is the CREATOR of sin! The RULER of evil! The FATHER of all VILLAINY!"

"THE NAME!" Cheshire roared. "GIVE ME THE WRETCHED NAME!"

"Walt Disney himself hated cats so much," Speedy continued, "that he even went so far as to have the cat in the 1950's cartoon animated movie version of Cinderella named after him!"

"DO I _LOOK_ LIKE I'M IN THE MOOD TO DISCUSS SUCH PANSY AND SACCHARINE CHILDREN'S STORIES YOU LITTLE . . . !?" Then Cheshire paused, a very noticeable look of stunned horror on her face as that one final hint that Speedy had given, combined with everything else he'd said beforehand to describe her boss's apparent superior finally clicked in her head and allowed her to realize just who the ginger haired archer was insinuating him to be. "L . . . l . . . Lucifer?" Cheshire eventually managed to stammer. " _The_ Devil? _Satan_ himself? _That's_ who my boss works for?"

Speedy let out a relieved sigh, a clear look of both relief and smug satisfaction now on his face. "Took you long enough to figure that out."

Cheshire started very visibly shaking, lowered her spear so that the tip was lightly touching the floor directly to the left of Speedy's chest, and eventually managed to say, "You're . . . you're lying, my boss isn't working for Lucifer, he's not. Lucifer isn't real, that's impossible!" She turned her head very briefly to face the area to her right, her face even at that moment clearly showing that even she herself didn't entirely believe in what she was now saying to try to convince herself. "He's just some imaginary monster thought up and used as a means to threaten Sunday school students to keep them in line and make sure they behave! There's no such thing!"

Cheshire then turned her head to face Speedy directly once more. But Speedy only shook his head side to side with his eyes closed. When he finally stopped shaking his head to directly face Cheshire once more with his eyes open, Cheshire only found her conviction in what she'd just said to try to convince herself otherwise shaking even further. "I used to think the exact same thing Cheshire," said Speedy. "But in the years that have followed, I've become more open minded, and I've done the math. And quite honestly, think about it Cheshire. Really think about it. Are you even certain that you yourself truly don't believe what I'm saying? Think hard, really hard. Has your boss told you _anything_ about his own boss? Is there anything you know at _all_ about this being your boss directly serves? Anything that would remotely hint that he's truly anything else _but_ the being I've just now identified him as?"

Cheshire, in spite of herself, actually ended up following Speedy's advice and truly thinking hard about what the archer had told her. Truth be told, as much as she didn't want to admit it, she now couldn't help but see what little she had managed to become aware of before now regarding her boss's superior in a now very much harsher and more sinister light now that Speedy had revealed the very disturbing potential identity of said superior. Things that in her mind really only made sense when used to quite literally refer to the Devil. And in one particularly glaring example she was now thinking of, Vandal Savage had at one point been seen talking to the superior alongside her boss and had uttered the word 'God' in the context of a complaint, only for the superior to narrow all 14 of his reptilian red eyes (the only parts of him that could be seen through the portal used to convey the message) and very sternly request for the immortal caveman to not 'say the name of his father in vain'. And last time she checked, from what she knew of Abrahamic faith, Lucifer was God's second Archangel son.

Speedy's own eyes took on a look of sympathy as he saw how very clearly Cheshire was being affected by the revelation. "It's the truth Cheshire," said Speedy. "Your boss, and by proxy yourself, are working for _the_ Devil. And like I said, that's pretty low." He slowly began to work to get back up on his feet. "The other day, the very same day I got ahold of that spear, you told me that you weren't always the kind of person you are now and didn't entirely enjoy being that way. Well now, here's your chance to really be better than that."

Cheshire sighed, and hung her head. "It's not that easy," she then said. "I can't just up and abandon the lifestyle I've lived for so many years that fast."

"You don't have to," said Speedy. "You can start out slow and small." He leaned forward slightly, partially extending his right arm towards Cheshire cautiously, yet genuinely. "For starters, you can help us by looking the other way and not letting Geo-Force or your boss know about what happened with the spear and how I used it to set things up for an escape as well as keep them in the dark about Bumblebee's recovering from her injuries. And from that point on . . .," he thought to himself. "Didn't you also say something a couple days ago about Geo-Force always keeping the rooftop entrance for the tower as the only part of the tower's roof that he kept covered up with the rocky layers except for when he and you needed to enter or exit?"

Cheshire tensed up, briefly uncertain as to whether or not she should confirm this, but then she closed her eyes and nodded her head.

"Ok there, that's another thing you can do," said Speedy. "You can both convince Geo-Force to uncover the rooftop entrance and leave it that way for the entirety of tomorrow and the rest of this evening, and also maybe even convince him to let you conveniently depart from the tower and go somewhere else where you can't help him interfere when Aqualad and the Jump City Titans come to help us out."

Cheshire raised her eyebrow. "How would I do that? What would I say?"

"You're Cheshire," Speedy responded. "You'll figure something out. You're smart like that. You've proven that time and time again."

Cheshire raised her eyebrow, half flattered and half annoyed. "I didn't figure out that you had my spear and had been using it to set up an escape until now."

"Well just like you said," said Speedy. "That was just sheer dumb luck on my part."

Cheshire thought to herself. "That is true."

Speedy nodded his head, and then continued, "And finally, when this is all over, you can further work your way up by going deep cover. You can serve as a double agent behind your boss's lines, be my eyes and ears."

Cheshire raised her eyebrow, clearly uncertain as to just how to react to this last little suggestion.

"Look I get it," said Speedy, his hands raised in a placatory gesture. "I'm probably pushing my luck right now, but I'm just making a suggestion now. And really, it's all your choice here, but I'm serious."

Cheshire thought to herself, then looked over at Speedy, then at the other Titans East members present, then back at Speedy once more. "Hmm," she then said. "you've definitely got the pressing your luck bit correct." Speedy grimaced, bracing himself for something worse to happen. Then Cheshire threw her reclaimed spear back behind the cairn, but this time with the spear successfully landing entirely behind the cairn so that it would be less easy to spot. "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt this time," she then said. "And if all this works out and you successfully escape, then maybe, just maybe, I'll consider taking you up on your offer of being your eyes and ears for my boss's plans. But I'm warning you now, if your current little string of ploys doesn't work, then whether or not I take you up on that offer will be the least of your worries."

Speedy nodded his head, mentally celebrating but likewise also feeling relieved at how very big a crisis he'd managed to avert. "Understood," he then said before directing a smile at Cheshire. "Good luck."

"Thank you," Cheshire then said in an almost comically flat tone before she then picked up her mask, slipped it back on, and exited the cage. "Remember," she then said right as she reached the doorway leading out of the basement proper straight to the bottom of the stairs, "you have until this Saturday at exactly 12:00 noon to get out of here before my boss arrives." She turned her head to look at Speedy. "And for that matter, I'm gonna need a way to know for certain if your plan works that I can notice from outside this tower and won't prove too risky for me being exposed in helping you out."

Speedy nodded. "I'll figure something out. If you don't see any sort of signal by the end of tomorrow, you'll know whether or not we succeeded."

Cheshire raised her eyebrow under her mask, but then decided to just take Speedy's word for it, and nodded her head. "Very well." She turned to face the stairs. "And farewell." She climbed up the stairs and departed from the basement entirely.

For a good long while, all four of the captives kept absolutely silent. Then, after about five or ten minutes of not hearing Cheshire's footsteps, Bumblebee looked over at Speedy. "Well you sly dog," she then said. "Never thought you had it in you; telling her everything she wanted to hear? That's so clever."

"Si," said Mas.

"El zorro débil inteligente siempre se burla de la fuerte oso tonto," Menos agreed.

But then Speedy directed a glare at his three friends, and they shut up, a surprised expression on all their faces as they quite genuinely wondered what they'd done to earn this reaction from him. "I wasn't being clever and tricking her," said Speedy. He then narrowed his eyes. "I meant every word."

Speedy then turned his head to look at the rock pillar segment he'd sawed out, walked over to it, and then set it back into the position it had originally been before Cheshire had kicked it out of place. Then, still remaining silent and tranquilly angry, he walked over to the cairn, reached behind it, picked up the spear, and proceeded to take part in his original ritual of removing that one small stone near the bottom and slipping the spear into the interior of the cairn before then slipping the stone immediately back into position. He then looked back at his fellow captive friends. "And believe me," he then said. "When Aqualad and the Jump City Titans arrive and we successfully escape and take down Geo-Force, then by God, I am _going_ to send Cheshire that signal damn it. Whatever it turns out to be, I will _send_ it."

. . . . .

Meanwhile, outside the tower, Geo-Force was pacing around outside his lair, thinking carefully about the revelation he'd experienced in figuring out that the apparent harmless civilian former Titan that had accompanied the Titans and the Atlantean and he himself had originally been tasked with having killed and never paying close attention to had actually turned out to be his own long lost younger sister. As he thought once again about his meeting with his sister, he briefly felt a slight flash of pain in his head, and he placed his hand to his forehead, growling slightly at the pain. Ever since he'd departed from where he'd done battle with and had his perfectly touching (in his opinion anyway) reunion with his little sister, he'd been experiencing these very annoying flashes of pain in his head every now and then. He removed his hand from his forehead, kept his eyes closed, and shook his head side to side to try to clear his head and dispel the pain. "Blood of the mountain," he thought to himself, "what is wrong with me?" he thought to himself. For the life of him, he truly could not understand why he was being so very painfully plagued right now after his encounter with Terra and the revelation of their familial connection. Quite honestly, if he didn't know better, it was almost as if perhaps maybe.

Snarling in anger quite abruptly, he closed his eyes and rapidly shook his head side to side to clear his head of the thought. "NO," he snarled viciously to himself. "I am not undergoing a mental struggle for control. The spirit of who I was has been crushed; my master's control is in complete effect and not waning in the slightest, and I'd have to be a fool to even _think_ otherwise."

His communicator that his master had given him abruptly went off, and with an angry growl, he snatched it up from his belt, opened it up, and accepted the call. "WHAT IS IT?!" he roared into the communicator without even giving the person calling to say a word beforehand.

At the sound of the very audible gulp of a female voice on the other end of the line, Geo-Force found himself wincing, instantly snapping out of his blind rage, and mentally face palming at how very brutish and uncivilized he'd just behaved. "I'm sorry," said Cheshire's voice from the communicator. "It seems I've caught you at a bad time. I'll see if I can talk later."

"No, no, please, don't hang up, I'm sorry," Geo-Force hurriedly stated. Even as he spoke, he continued to mentally curse himself for his temper and letting it get the better of him. "Really I am. I was just not in the best mood after what happened earlier today in my encounter with the Titans, and I snapped. But please, go ahead, tell me what it is you want to say."

For what seemed like an agonizingly long time, there was complete silence on Cheshire's end of the line, and for a moment Geo-Force feared that he'd completely ruined any chance of Cheshire continuing the talk. And quite honestly, he had a feeling that maybe having even a tiny little talk with Cheshire would perhaps snap him out of his earlier funk and further put to rest the ridiculous idea of his original independent self trying to fight to seize back control. Then Cheshire finally responded, "If you say so."

Heaving a sigh of relief, Geo-Force hurriedly seized advantage. "Yes, please, I'm really sorry, just talk, say what you need to say."

"Very well," said Cheshire. "But could I please come outside the tower to talk to you about it? I'm not entirely certain if this is the kind of thing you should prattle about on the phone as opposed to reserving for face to face encounters."

"Oh that's perfectly fine," said Geo-Force. "Just hold on a second." He gently lowered his communicator on the ground at his feet, turned to face the tower, and proceeded to move his hands while tuning himself in with the earthen layers encasing the majority of the tall T-shaped building. Within seconds, the distinctive covering placed upon the rooftop entrance of the tower retracted and gave way, allowing for the rooftop exit to be properly accessed. He picked the communicator back up. "Ok, you can exit the tower now," he then stated. "I'll summon a means for you safely get down to the ground.

"Copy that," said Cheshire.

Moments later, Cheshire had exited the tower and made it down to Geo-Force's position through means of a floating rock he'd summoned to carry her down from the roof. And for a brief few seconds they stood facing each other. "So," said Geo-Force, finally daring to break the silence. "What was it you wished to talk about?"

Cheshire took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "Time to get my game on," she thought to herself, "but I can't let him figure out what I'm really up to and give the whole game away." She looked directly at Geo-Force, more thankful then she'd ever been before for how well her mask covered her face. "Well, I've been maintaining very thorough guard over the prisoners for a pretty long while now, and I really don't think it will be very likely at all for them to escape at any point in the near future, and Aqualad and the Jump City Titans still haven't arrived yet."

Geo-Force raised his eyebrow as if confused about what Cheshire was getting at. "They could still arrive pretty soon you know," he then said. "As I myself very clearly noticed earlier today, they are still in the area, and so is the former geomancer."

Cheshire nodded her head, and extended her hands to the sides in a 'point taken' gesture. "True," she admitted. Then she looked back at Geo-Force. "Still though, do you really think I truly need to stay here at the tower 24/7 alongside you? I mean come on, you were able to take out basically the entire Titans East team on your own without a sweat, and you appear to be at least evenly matched against the Jump City titans from what you told me about your battle against them at Steel City proper.

"True enough," Geo-Force admitted. He stretched his arms upward, letting out a yawning groan in the process. "But still," he then continued. "You can never be too careful."

"Fair point," said Cheshire. Underneath her mask, she mentally cursed. At this rate, she wouldn't be getting anywhere. "Time to switch tactics," she thought to herself. She yawned, directed a long look at the forest, and then looked back at Geo-Force. "Nonetheless, perhaps maybe it would be ok at least for me to take a brief leave of absence from the tower over the next couple of days? At least maybe for tonight and all of tomorrow?"

Geo-Force raised his eyebrow, now very much looking confused. "Why?" he then asked.

Cheshire, making sure not to give away any sign of her brief nervousness, responded almost immediately, "Well you've got to understand, I've spent so much time all cooped up inside that tower, only going outside every rare occasion every now and then and always having to go right back inside afterward. And to be honest, after all that, I just, could really use some air." She extended her hands sideways and upwards to indicate the surrounding area. "Come on, you're a geomancer," she then said. "Surely you understand how it feels to feel the wind, bask in the forest atmosphere, and breath in fresh mountain air?"

Geo-Force thought to himself, and then found himself smiling wistfully as he remembered how much he himself did indeed enjoy such things, particularly so considering the fact that he was a geomancer. "Yes," he admitted. "I can certainly see the appeal."

"I know right?" said Cheshire. "And besides, with my background, I've gotten quite used to camping outside in the wide open spaces and other areas of the wilderness, and I've really come to miss that over all the time I've spent sleeping indoors over the past few days. And at this rate, I just can't help but feel like I might very well go crazy if I don't get out here and let myself loose and be in my element outside in the forest as opposed to spending so much time in that stuffy and dusty old tower; no offense."

"None taken," said Geo-Force. He nodded his head up and down. "I can certainly imagine how you're probably feeling cooped up in the tower. I have made a point to not go in there very often and always spend the majority of my time either here on the obvious outside of the tower or inside that cave I've set up behind the tower for a reason." He nodded his head once more. "Sure, feel free to have your bit of fun outside the tower in the forest. I don't see anything wrong with that. Go on ahead, I won't stop you. Heck, since you said you want to start your leave tonight, I'll gladly go ahead and summon a ride for you from here to the forest."

"Sounds good," said Cheshire. She then took a deep breath, and exhaled. Now it was time for her to try to take care of one not entirely as easy detail. "But before you do that, there's just one other thing I'd like to ask, if you don't mind."

"Not at all," said Geo-Force. "Go ahead. I'm listening."

Cheshire took another deep breath, and exhaled. "That covering you keep on the rooftop entrance. Do you think perhaps you could keep it retracted and leave that particular doorway uncovered the entire time I'm gone?"

Geo-Force raised his eyebrow once more. "And why, may I ask, would you wish for that? Just out of curiosity?"

Cheshire took yet another deep breath, exhaled once more, and then looked straight back at Geo-Force yet again. "Well hey, no one's going to be using it, and quite honestly, I think it would be a whole lot more convenient for us if you just left if uncovered until after I arrive back here at the tower and seal it up again when I enter it upon return instead of just having to uncover and recover it." She then pointed upward at the moon. "And besides, with as little time the Atlantean, the Jump City Titans, and by this point we might as well also count the former geomancer as well, currently have to make some attempt to somehow rescue the captives before our boss arrives, I don't really see the harm in loosening the security up just a smidge."

Geo-Force thought to himself. "Well, I suppose you do have a point there." Then his eyes narrowed as he considered some other details. "Still, while I was able to arrive at that campsite earlier today at around a time it seemingly appeared as if they were discussing plans, I didn't arrive until after that meeting was over, and I don't know for sure just what details they know of regarding the way things are here at the Titans East tower, or whether or not they have any plans thought up at the moment, or in the event they do just what they have planned. And with that in mind, who knows when they could strike?" He then looked back at Cheshire. "And even with all that in mind, there's still the mattering of the specific covering in question itself. As I'm sure you've noticed, I've made that particular bit of covering quite distinctive and obvious. I'm quite certain the Titans would very easily notice its absence if I were to grant you this request you're asking, may very well then decide to strike and enact a rescue plot not too long after noticing said absence, and would almost certainly find it somewhat easier to get into the tower and rescue the prisoners."

"Not necessarily."

Geo-Force narrowed his eyes. "And what might you mean by that?"

Cheshire took a deep breath, and exhaled again. "Forgive me for the interruption." She opened her eyes. "But to clarify, knowing the Titans, I'm sure they are aware of how whenever something looks a little too easy, odds are it's not. And with that in mind, I'm sure that if they were to look at the tower and notice that the covering you have specifically in the area with the rooftop entrance happened to be unexpectedly gone, odds are that perhaps they'd possibly think that maybe you're deliberately trying to trick them into coming and lull them into a false sense of security so as to set up a trap for them. And with such suspicions in their mind, they might put themselves even more on guard and be extra careful and keep their distance. I mean come on, it's not like the Titans just happen to be inexplicably keeping watch over us right this very moment and could be possibly at all be aware of how that wouldn't in fact be the case."

Immediately after Cheshire said this, and while Geo-Force set to work on thinking her words over, Cheshire very slightly turned her head to look in the direction of a small opening in the trees of the forest, a look on her face that clearly seemed as if she were hoping for _exactly_ that possibility, even going so far as to mouth 'you'd better be watching this', towards where she was certain either one of the Titans, the Atlantean, the former geomancer, or possibly even some sort of camera, or whatever else could be possible for surveillance in that area, hoping beyond hope now that somehow the Atlantean and the Titans would have the chance to be made very much aware of the very big favor she sticking her neck out to grant them.

She then hurriedly looked back at Geo-Force just in time to notice that he was now nodding his head and did not appear to have at all noticed Cheshire's glance towards the forest. "A very fair point," he then said. He opened his eyes, placed his finger on his chin, and smiled. "And quite honestly, when you put it that way, that would actually be a pretty clever gambit." He turned his head to face the masked former teen assassin. "Very well then," said the geomancer. "I shall gladly grant this request, but nothing else, I'd rather not test my luck too much."

"I understand," said Cheshire. Already she could feel a blazing sensation of joy and victory inside her, and it took all her willpower to keep it contained and strictly inside her head. "And thank you."

"No problem," said Geo-Force. "And you're welcome." He then looked over at the forest, and then back at Cheshire. "Perhaps now I could summon you that ride I offered?"

Cheshire nodded her head, making sure to very carefully keep her nodding slow and not seemingly in a hurry as if she had something to hide. "Yes Geo-Force. Go on ahead. I'm ready."

Geo-Force nodded, turned his head to face the direction of the forest, and summoned a large levitating stone perfectly big enough for Cheshire to stand and ride upon. Cheshire quietly and calmly stepped aboard the stone, gave the geomancer a salute of respect, which said geomancer returned, and then turned around to face the forest as Geo-Force proceeded to send the stone levitating away towards the forest. For what seemed like an eternity, Cheshire remained still and outwardly calm as she rode on the levitating rock towards the forest, noting with a hint of relief that she was hovering towards a completely different access point from the one she'd directed that one surreptitious glance. But then, after she reached the point that she almost certain that she'd snap, the stone finally came to a stop at the access point that Geo-Force had chosen for her, and she jumped off the stone, landing perfectly on both feet and her right hand. Mere seconds after this landing, she proceeded to bolt into the forest, drawing out her ever so trusty pair of sais in a moment of pure muscle memory. And as she then proceeded to dash headlong and heartily into the forest with her sais at the ready and the wind blowing across her skin and through her long flowing black hair, she felt herself genuinely grinning with joy underneath her mask as she both felt the joyful familiarity she was used to from spending time in the outdoors as well as the sheer magnitude of what she'd managed to achieve. "I did it!" she thought to herself happily. "I was able to do exactly what the archer . . . no . . . what Speedy . . . suggested I do. And it felt good! It. Actually. Felt. G _ood_!"

She briefly closed her eyes, small tears of joy starting to briefly appear before she then opened her eyes once more. "Maybe he's right," she thought to herself. "Maybe I do have a chance to be a better person then I've been. Maybe I can have a place in the light and be good!" As she had these thoughts, she turned her head to face the direction of the tower, now feeling a mixture of pride, joy, gratitude, genuine hope, and even a tiny twinge of some other emotion that she herself wasn't entirely on what to identify it as. "Oh Speedy," she thought to herself. "Whatever happens, you'd better survive, successfully escape, and send me that signal. If you do, then by God, I promise I will take you up on your offer to be your eyes and ears. On the tips of my sais and what remains of my soul I swear it!"

 **And just like that, another chapter complete! I'm proud to admit that this is yet another chapter I feel proud of myself for in regard to how it's turned out! ^_^ And boy do I hope that you guys all enjoyed reading it just as much as I ended up enjoying writing it. And with that being said, I'm also hoping just as strongly that you'll leave plenty of feedback! Remember, just like with the previous chapter, it is now MANDATORY that I receive at LEAST ONE review for this new chapter by the time I finish the next chapter. Remember that everyone. And please, I highly recommend that everyone who reads this (regardless of whether or not you're a guest or in possession of an account on this website) who has the ability, please, PLEASE, leave a review. Seriously guys. Come on!**

 **P.S: As you have likely noticed over the course of this chapter, Cheshire seems very soon to potentially be on the way to setting off on a path to the light. And my response to what anyone might say in complaint about that . . . I don't see why not. This is my fanfiction I'm writing. This certainly wouldn't be the first story, fanfiction or otherwise, to give character's a good dose of adaptational heroism. Heck, since fellow fanfiction writer Jazzism (formerly known as Jazzybizzle) was able to get away with it for Cheshire in his/her 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' story, and the people of the Young Justice cartoon show were able to get away with it for Artemis in said cartoon series, I don't see why I can't get away with allowing Cheshire the chance to reform in my stories. Do you? Well on that note, I shall apologize in advance if all that made me sound conceited. Once again, hope you all enjoyed!**

 **Coming up next: Thanks to Cheshire's (and through her, Speedy's) very well executed and helpful favor, the Titans find themselves granted with the perfect plan and opportunity to get inside Titans Tower East and rescue the captive members of Titans East. But even after getting in, just what will they find still standing between them and their captive friends? Find out next time, on Geo-Force!**


	16. Infiltration

**Hey there everybody! I'm back with a new chapter! In fact, I actually finished this chapter last Wednesday or so and am getting pretty darn close to finishing the next chapter, but my computer's internet connection went AWOL, and it just WOULD NOT come back until I FINALLY got it to return TODAY. But nonetheless, here's the new chapter! In this new installment to episode 2 of A-LionGleek's Teen Titans Season 6, with Cheshire (and through her, Speedy) having managed to arrange some behind the scenes work to make things easier, the Titans, plus Aqualad and Terra, soon find themselves just the opportunity they need to finally infiltrate Titans Tower East and rescue the captive members of Titans East. But even so, what will they find standing in their way in their efforts? And will they successfully reach the captive members and set them free before their doing battle with Geo-Force? Find out, in this new chapter! Here's to hoping you read, review, and enjoy!**

 **A/N: But first, let me remind you all again, I do not own Teen Titans. Got that? Good. Onward with the story!**

 **Chapter 15:**

 **Infiltration**

Meanwhile, inside the cave where Aqualad, Terra, and the Titans were camping, the six teens were fast asleep in the cavern they'd selected as their overall campsite when Robin abruptly found himself being very rudely awaken by the sound of an electronic beeping and whirring. For a brief moment, Robin rolled over in his sleep, groaning tiredly in irritation. But then he heard the noises again, this time coming from seemingly directly behind his head.

Acting purely on reflex, Robin thrusted his left fist at the area behind his head. The fist in question crashed into something metallic, and he was then awakened completely when he heard the mysterious object crash into something else and he heard Cyborg yell, "Ow! What was that . . . what the heck? This was supposed to come back to report tomorrow morning."

Robin turned over to look over in Cyborg's direction, and saw a now wide awake Cyborg examining a hovering metallic sphere that was instantly recognizable as one of the surveillance drones that Cyborg had stationed to keep watch over Titans East Tower earlier in the afternoon. The other Titans, plus Aqualad and Terra soon woke up as well to watch what was happening, though Beast Boy took very noticeably longer to do so, groaning and moaning irritably and tiredly the entire time. And even when he finally managed to raise himself up to a sitting position and direct his eyes towards Cyborg and the drone, his eyes were only half open and the rest of his face likewise showed how still very half asleep he was. "This . . . so . . . better . . . be . . . important," he managed to groan.

Cyborg carefully got to work on handling the drone, trying to figure out why the drone had returned earlier than the time it had originally been set for. After a few minutes, just as Beast Boy was on the verge of blacking out and landing flat on his face on the cavern floor back to sleep, Cyborg finally found and accessed a footage file that he knew, for a fact, had not been present on the drone when he'd sent it out earlier that afternoon. "Found it!"

At the sound of this, all six of the other teens hurriedly gathered around Cyborg to get a look at the footage alongside him. Beast Boy, still being somewhat tired, took almost a minute longer than the others to get into position, and he was the last to arrive. But once they'd all gathered together, Cyborg began to play the footage.

At first, the footage seemed to be entirely of Geo-Force, and the beginning parts of the footage soon proved reason for Terra to feel quite hopeful, as the footage soon revealed subtle hints that further hinted at Geo-Force indeed being under the influence of mind control combined with the happy possibility of the geomancer's own independent mind beginning to put up a strong fight to seize back control. But as the seven teens watched the rest of the footage, they soon found themselves quite stunned as to just what went down. Even Beast Boy found himself 100% awake as a result of how shocked he was at what he was watching unfold on the screen.

"No way," he managed to say after the footage had reached its end, which appeared to be the moment in which the drone had turned around and started on its way back to the cave. He shook his head side to side, quite dumbfounded. "I can't believe it."

"Join the club," said Raven. "Tell me I'm dreaming."

"I wish I could guys," said Cyborg. "But I really think this is actually happening. Unbelievable as it may be."

"You've certainly got the unbelievable part correct," said Robin. He shook his own head side to side. "After everything that's happened, all the trouble and drama we've gone through, and all the obstacles that have popped up in our way; and now, in the space of almost half an hour or more, and with only a full day and a half as of tonight at midnight, we've now got two obstacles removed from the equation without having even needed to do anything about them."

"Indeed," said Aqualad, likewise surprised. "Heck, did you notice that one moment when she seemed to somewhat look directly towards the camera? Or better yet, the look that was on her face? If I didn't know better, I'd have thought that she was actually _hoping_ that we were somehow watching this and would be purposefully made aware of this information."

"I am confused," said Starfire. "I thought that the Cheshire was a villain?"

"Don't ask me," said Terra. "I'm as confused as you are."

"I thought she was to," said Robin. "But with this footage in mind, I honestly can't really say I'm sure what to think on that matter."

Then Aqualad's eyes widened. "Well as confusing and surprising as all this may be," he then said before directing his head to look directly at all six of his companions, "you've got to admit, this certainly looks like it could prove quite useful for us."

Terra and four of the Jump City Titans thought to themselves for a few seconds, and then their own eyes widened as they to realized just how much the odds had now gone into their favor as a result of the events that had just been recorded by Cyborg's drone. Beast Boy, however, due to his mind still partially muddled up from lingering exhaustion from having been woken up at the current hour, was a tiny bit slower on the uptake at this particular moment. "How?" he then asked.

Aqualad turned his head to direct his focus more closely on the changeling. "Think Beast Boy, think," said the Atlantean. "Assuming that Cheshire was speaking the entire truth, and we'd best be on guard on that matter just in case, then she'll be out in the forest on leave from the Titans East tower for the entirety of tomorrow."

"That part I got," Beast Boy admitted. "But won't that make us at risk of her finding us at our campsite?"

"Oh there won't be any need to worry about that," said Robin. "Because not only has Cheshire conveniently abandoned her post, but directly thanks to her, Geo-Force has not only gone ahead and removed the covering from the rooftop entrance of the tower, but he'll also be keeping it uncovered for the entirety of tomorrow."

"So?" asked Beast Boy.

"So?" Robin asked back. "Don't you get it Beast Boy? Remember our meeting earlier today? Before Geo-Force dropped by?"

"Yes."

"The only thing we still had preventing us from coming up with a proper plan of rescue and attack was our inability to find a way to enter the tower without running undue risk of alerting Geo-Force, Cheshire, and the three constructs before we could get to the basement and set the rest of Titans East free and team up with them before _then_ taking care of Geo-Force and the other villains guarding them."

Robin then pointed at the drone. "But _now_ , thanks to Cheshire, not only will we now only need to worry about Geo-Force and his constructs when it comes to obstacles we'll need to directly do battle with, but we now also have a perfectly useful means of getting inside the tower available and virtually unguarded!" The Boy Wonder turned his head to look directly at the drone. "As we've managed to gather through Raven's soul self visits and previous footage gathered from Cyborg's drones, we know that Geo-Force almost _never_ goes inside the actual tower itself, and spends virtually all his time either inside his cave he's set up behind the tower, or outside on the shores surrounding the island. And with all that in mind, all we have to do tomorrow is wait until we can know for certain that Geo-Force is holed up in his cave, and then we can come on over to the island, fly up to the roof, and quietly enter the tower through the now no longer blocked off rooftop entrance. And once we've entered the tower, all we have to do is be extra careful that we don't get caught by the constructs, and we should be more than capable of reaching the basement and getting the rest of Titans East free and ready to fight so that we can then all destroy the constructs and take the fight to Geo-Force together."

At that moment, Beast Boy's eyes widened as he finally realized completely just how perfect an opportunity had now been granted to him and his friends to successfully complete their mission. "Ok," he then said, "now I _definitely_ get it!"

"Good."

In a flash, Aqualad and the Jump City Titans directed their attention to Terra, who now had a half joyous and half determined look on her face. "Because tomorrow, thanks to Cheshire making it possible, we are going to infiltrate the Titans East tower and rescue Aqualad's teammates." Her determined grin still on her face, and her eyes now narrowed in that same level of iron willed determination, the former geomancer slammed her left fist upon her right palm, and then said, "And once we've rescued Aqualad's teammates and likewise gotten ourselves ready for battle, mark my words, somehow or other, we are going to save my brother."

. . . . .

At 9:00 sharp the next morning, the seven teens found themselves wide awake and gathered around at the area where the drone that had recorded the game changing footage had been positioned the previous day, ready for action and waiting patiently for the opportune moment to enact their plan. But until that moment came, they would have to make do by carefully waiting and watching remotely from across the sea to keep an eye out on Geo-Force and his position. At the current moment, Geo-Force was walking around on the shores surrounding the island. But when the time came in which the geomancer deemed it a good time to end his little walkabout and hole himself up in his cave, the Titans would be ready.

"Come on, come on," Aqualad whispered to himself as he watched the geomancer pacing around doing nothing in particular. "Hurry up and go back to your cave already."

Terra placed her hand on the Atlantean's shoulder, and when said Atlantean turned his head to face her in response, Terra shook her head, a half teasing and half reassuring smile on her face. "Patience my fine gilled friend," said the former geomancer. "He'll slink off to his lair soon enough. We still have all of today, and I highly doubt he'll spend the entire day walking around the island without once going back into his cave."

Aqualad sighed, nodded his head, and then said, "I guess you're right." He looked back over in the direction of the island. "But still, I'm hoping he goes off to his cave soon. I'm really getting tempted right now to burst out of hiding right now from the tension of waiting to finally save my friends that he's holding prisoner."

"Don't worry Aqualad," said Cyborg. "Sooner or later, but preferably sooner, Geo-Force will return to his cave, and once that drone I've currently got in camouflage mode keeping surveillance on the area directly behind the tower and am watching it's recording footage remotely through my cybernetic eye has gotten visual confirmation of him going back into his cave and showing signs of staying there for the long run, we'll be ready."

"If you say so," said Aqualad.

At around 9:30, Geo-Force finally began to seemingly make his way continuously off towards the area behind the tower, as if finally heading off to spend some time in his cave. The Titans all watched eagerly, hoping against hope that the moment had finally come. Cyborg even made sure to cause the drone providing him with remote viewing of the exact location of the cave to zoom in just to be absolutely positive that he would catch sight of what he'd need to see in order to know for certain that the time was right. And as luck would have it, Geo-Force indeed did proceed to go all to the way to the area directly behind the tower, stretch his arms in the air with a slight yawn of contentment, and then step calmly away into his cave. After Geo-Force entered the cave, Cyborg had his six friends stay in waiting for just another couple minutes longer just to make sure that Geo-Force would be staying in his cave and was not about to exit again in the near future. After about five minutes, possibly ten, Cyborg finally deemed it safe, and he shut off his remote access to the footage, called the drone off, and nodded his head to his friends to signal that the time had come to initiate the plan.

Robin nodded his head in response to Cyborg's signal, and then looked over at the other teens lying in wait. "Alright guys," said Robin. "You remember the plan right?" His companions all nodded. "Good," said the Boy Wonder. He pounded his right fist against his left palm. "Titans," he said in a notably calmer and softer tone than he usually did when calling out the Titans' catch phrase. "Go."

. . . . .

Minutes later, all seven of the teens had made it to the island and onto the roof of Titans Tower East. Starfire had effortlessly flown the entire way while carrying Robin by the hands in their usual fashion. Raven had levitated over alongside Beast Boy, who had likewise been carrying Cyborg in the talons of his pteranodon form. Aqualad, meanwhile, had used his natural Atlantean powers to surf across the sea while carrying Terra in his arms in an almost bridal style fashion before then letting Raven levitate them both up to the roof using her shadowy powers.

With all seven of the teens on the roof, Robin quietly tiptoed over to the now quite conveniently uncovered rooftop entrance. Upon taking position at the handle designed to allow for pulling to open the trapdoor, Robin gave a 'shush' signal to the other Titans, mentally counted to three, and then slowly lifted up the hatch, careful not to allow it to make any noise. Even after he'd sufficiently lifted up the door so as to allow him and the others to slip through the entrance, he still waited long enough to just as carefully and gently lower the door down so that it lay against the roof of the tower and would thus have no chance of slamming into that same position and causing any undue noise. With this bit of work taken care of, Robin looked back over at his friends and silently mouthed, 'All clear'. One by one, all six of the Boy Wonder's companions quietly clambered down through the rooftop entrance. Robin was the last to enter, and as he did so, he made a point of carefully lifting the door hatch up from its completely open position and gently placing it back into its closed position.

With all seven of the teens now inside the tower, they tiptoed their way down the stairs all the way to the exit leading straight into the common room, Terra at the very front and Robin at the very back. They entered the common room and spent a couple seconds looking around, surveying the quite trashed, dusty, and darkened room and letting the full extent of the damage and 'redecorating' that Geo-Force had subjected it to sink into their heads. Practically every single piece of furniture had been either utterly smashed or knocked over onto its side. Multiple rocks of varying sizes were lying around the floor, which also had quite a few large patches of dust scattered across it. And not only was there dust and stones scattered across the floor, but there were also multiple stalagmites jutting out from the floor in assorted locations as well. And to further sink things in, not only was the gaping hole that had been blasted into the central window during Geo-Force's arrival at the tower still present (albeit, covered up on one side by the layers of stone the geomancer had summoned to encase the tower), but the main doors to the common room were still lying against the corridor wall directly outside the common room all crunched up and covered in dust and similar rock residue, and (much to Aqualad's consternation) the water of the interior portion of Aqualad's personal sea-based entrance and exit from the tower had been very noticeably fouled up on the surface with mud and dust.

"For a prince," said Aqualad, "he has absolutely no sense of proper decoration or sense of respect."

"You can blame that on the deranged psychopath that's got him under mind control," said Terra. "From what I remember, the true Geo-Force I knew has a much better sense of both."

Robin snorted slightly, took one last sweeping look around the area, then looked back at his six compatriots. "Well never mind that right now," said the Boy Wonder. "Right now, we'd best get. . ."

The teenage caped crusader was effectively interrupted when the air was split with a deep gravelly snarling noise coming from the hallway, accompanied by the sound of heavy footsteps. The eyes of the seven teens widened, clearly understanding the gravity of the current situation. Robin hurriedly turned his head just in time to notice that the 'island' counter of the kitchen area was undamaged and darted off behind it. "Quick," whispered the Boy Wonder. "Hide." The other six teens hurriedly, yet quietly, darted over into position behind the kitchen island alongside their fearless leader.

As the seven teenage heroes remained crouched behind the kitchen island with their backs pressed up against the side they were sitting by, they heard the sound of the footsteps increase in volume as whatever being they belonged to seemingly entered the room, the inhuman snarling likewise becoming louder as well. For a brief moment, right as the snarling being that had entered seemingly came to a stop right behind the kitchen island segment that Robin was sitting against, the same being seemingly stopped moving, growling lowly. In that moment, Robin chose to take the chance and took a quick peek over the top of the kitchen island.

At the sight of what he found, Robin mentally gulped. As he'd suspected, the being in question that had entered the room was none other than one of the three constructs that Geo-Force had summoned over the course of his stay at Titans Tower East. And just as he'd come to suspect on the fact that there had even been any footsteps to hear, the construct in question was the one that resembled a wolf. And upon eye witness viewing, Robin had to admit that this construct made the biggest and baddest of fairy tale wolves look like harmless puppies. As was to be expected from being a construct, the creature seemed to be made entirely out of stone. The stones in question that formed the creature's body were a snowy white color, making it look as if it were made out marble, and also had some cracks in a couple of different areas, but the creature moved so much like an actual flesh and blood wolf that it was easy to forget that it was made out of stone (albeit colored as if made out of marble) unless one actually saw the cracks. Two particularly obvious cracks on the head area that appeared to serve as eyes had a golden yellow light glowing from within to highlight the fact that they served as eyes. And as if that weren't enough, the beast also had numerous jagged spikes lining across the top and bottom of its mouth that were obviously designed to serve as teeth, plus two particularly attention grabbing curved sickle blade-shaped stalactites near the front of its mouth that were styled and positioned as if to give the wolf a saber-toothed appearance. And finally, at the bases of its paws were razor sharp spikes clearly designed to serve as claws that Robin could have sworn looked exactly as if they were made out of a pure white diamond-like material.

The only reason Robin was even able to gaze upon the construct without getting discovered was because the construct was busy gazing down at the floor and seemingly sniffing at it. Then the creature tensed up, simultaneously going silent, and it moved its head slightly to its right, clearly about to look up in that direction. In a flash, Robin ducked back down into hiding before the construct could look up in time to see him watching.

As Robin mentally calmed himself down, he turned his head to face his six companions. Cyborg was the one immediately next to Robin, and he mouthed 'construct?' Robin nodded, and mouthed back 'construct', in confirmation. Then they all heard the construct snarl, and start walking again, but now very clearly walking towards the other end of the kitchen island. Robin's eyes widened, and then he quickly turned his head to look in the direction of the wide open main doorway to the common room. Then he looked back at the other six teens and mouthed 'follow my lead'. His companions nodded their heads in understanding, and Robin proceeded to carefully shuffle his way around the corner he was sitting nearby, the other six teens following his lead. Neither of them wanted to still be sitting on that particular side of the kitchen island in the event that the construct turned out to indeed be planning on walking in a circle around the entire kitchen island as they were currently suspecting.

As it soon turned out, the seven teens proved very lucky that there were multiple stalagmites for them to hide behind as they shuffled their way, one by one, across the short side directly facing the direction of the wall that the main entrance of the common room was located on, for they would have otherwise had no way of avoiding discovery in the event of the construct turning its head to look behind it before it had finished walking the length of the long side they hadn't been sitting against. In fact, it was only by sheer luck that Terra, the last of the seven in the line, managed to successfully shuffle her way over to the short side facing their escape route before the wolf construct finished walking the length of the short side on the opposite end and turn the corner to walk the length of the long side that had served as the hiding spot. And upon so narrowly avoiding getting seen by the wolf construct, it took all of five seconds for the seven teen heroes to hurriedly, yet still quietly, rush off through the open doorway leading into the main corridor while the construct was walking the length of the kitchen island long side that they'd been previously sitting up against.

However, right as the stony wolf was inches away from reaching the end of that particular side of the kitchen island, Terra accidentally stumbled briefly on some of the pebbles lying around nearby the dislodged doors, and the construct snapped its head upward, an alerted grunting snort popping from its closed mouth at the sound of the noise. It then turned its head towards the doorway, snarling suspiciously towards it. Still maintaining its hard eyed glare in the direction of the doorway, it crouched and started slowly stalking in that direction much like a standard carnivore on the hunt and preparing to pounce. It stalked across the room all the way into the hallway that the Titans had managed to slip off into, only to find seemingly absolutely nothing present in the hallway aside from itself and the wreckage of the door, plus various earthen elemental 'decorations'. But the construct wasn't about to let its suspicions slide that easily, and it narrowed its eyes further as it stared intently down the hallway in the direction it had originally come before entering the common room, snarling viciously.

Ten minutes later, after still not catching any sign of intruders, the construct snarled again, reluctantly turned around, and started loping off in the opposite direction down the hallway, still snarling and noticeably on guard. But if the construct had thought to actually go back down the hall towards the direction from which it had originally come, it would have likely managed to notice how the seven teens who'd so narrowly evaded it were hiding against a wall on a nearby side hallway. Even after the sound of the construct's footsteps and snarling had long since exited their collective hearing range, they still waited almost three whole minutes before daring to come out from their hiding place and continue down the hall in the direction opposite the one that the construct had now taken.

The Titans continued to make their way through the corridors, Aqualad and Terra following close behind. At one point, right as they were all on the verge of walking past another open doorway on a wall to their left, Robin came to a stop and held up his left hand in a clear signal for them to halt. The other six teens came to a stop, and Robin made another visual hand signal, this one meaning 'listen'. The seven teens listened intently, and soon heard what sounded like a low gravelly mixture between a chirp, croak, and squawk coming from right inside wherever the doorway they'd been about to walk by led into.

The Boy Wonder carefully leaned his head over to the doorway and peeked inside the room. As it turned out, the room in question was one of the small armory closets that had been placed within this particular tower. This information was very clearly recognizable by just the multiple collections of arrows within the room alone. However, it wasn't so much the various arrows, let alone the actual room itself that currently caught Robin's attention. Rather, it was the unwelcome occupant inside the room that had just now been heard squawking. In the very center of the room, perched atop a large glass box big enough to serve as a coffin, was a vulture made of stone, the second of Geo-Force's security constructs. At that particular moment, the construct appeared to be quite distracted, perching on the glass box and positioned and moving as if it were preening its left wing, with its eyes closed no less. And as it rubbed its tannish colored gravelly serrated beak against its noticeably darkened, almost black, granite wing, it once again emitted the contented throbbing croaking squawk that it had earlier emitted before Robin had peeked inside the room. But one other detail that proved equally attention grabbing was how, inside the box, directly underneath the construct's feet (which Robin noticed to have wicked looking talons that appeared, much like the claws of the wolf construct, to be made out of diamond) were Speedy's bow and quiver, and Bumblebee's distinctive pair of 'stingers'.

Deciding he'd seen enough, Robin turned his head away from the interior of the armory closet and looked back at his six compatriots. "The vulture construct is in there," the Boy Wonder whispered. And it's guarding the weapons inside."

The other six teens considered the information. "Let me guess, Speedy's bow and quiver, and Bumblebee's stingers are in there?" Cyborg asked.

Robin nodded his head. "You thinking we should go ahead and get them?" Robin asked.

Before Cyborg could answer, Aqualad placed his hand on the half robot's shoulder. "Not yet," whispered the Atlantean. "Too risky. The construct's right there inside that room. Let's worry about getting my team mates free first, then we'll come back to claim the weapons for Speedy and Bumblebee. After all, by that point, we already plan on making our presence known."

Terra and the Jump City Titans thought to themselves, and then nodded in agreement. "Alright then," said Robin. He quickly peeked inside the armory closet again, saw that the construct was currently still distracted with its preening, and then looked back at his friends. He pointed at the area on the opposite end of the open doorway to the closet. "Follow my lead," he then said, his gaze clearly focusing on Beast Boy, Aqualad, and Terra. The three teens in question nodded, and crouched as if preparing to jump. Robin nodded, and then got himself in the exact same position.

Seconds later, while the vulture construct was still busy preening, Robin, Beast Boy, Terra, and Aqualad proceeded to stealthily somersault their way past the open doorway, in that very order. However, literally seconds after Aqualad made it to the opposite end of the doorway, the sound of the slight wind displacement caused by the movements of the four teens alerted the vulture construct, and it stiffened, opened its yellow glowing eyes, and briefly turned its head to look in the direction of the doorway. Five seconds later, having seen nothing, shrugged, squawking quietly in a dismissive tone, and resumed its preening.

Immediately after this, Starfire and Raven flew past the doorway and joined their four compatriots. The wind displacement caused by the movement of the two flying teen girls caused the construct to be alerted, and it snapped its head to look at the doorway once again. The construct, thankfully, once again saw nothing. But this time, it took a noticeably longer time for it to lower its suspicions sufficiently enough to resume its preening, and even so, it continued to direct a suspicion filled glare the entire time it resumed its earlier preening position all the way until it turned its head and closed its eyes once more.

All of ten seconds passed after the construct had finally resumed its preening once more when Cyborg, encased everywhere except for his head in Raven's distinctive umbrakinetic shadow energy, went hovering past the doorway to the position of his six younger compatriots. Unfortunately, no sooner had Cyborg successfully been brought over to the opposite end of the open doorway, when the construct looked up from its preening and let out an alerted chirping grunt once again, having been alerted now by both wind displacement and the distinctive noise made by the energy that had been used to levitate Cyborg over. In a flash, the construct snapped its head to face the doorway, and leaned itself forward, groaning in such a suspicion filled and threatening tone that it was almost as if it were growling. For three solid minutes, the construct stared intently at the doorway, waiting for some sign of yet another potential intruder making its way past it to come into view, almost daring for something out of the ordinary to happen. Then the construct warbled irritably, lifted its left foot, and started pawing it across the surface of the glass box it was perched on, an audible screeching noise being made as it proceeded to sharpen its left talons. But other than that, the construct decided to stay put.

The seven teens meanwhile, despite having narrowly avoided getting caught, knew better than to let out a sigh of relief, for they could tell by the sound of the construct sharpening its claws as opposed to getting back to its preening that it was still on alert and had its guard up. And so, the seven teens proceeded to carefully tiptoe their way over to the end of the hallway they were currently walking through, and continued tiptoeing all the way over to the last corner they'd have to turn in order to reach the entrance to the basement. However, right as Robin stepped completely out into that particular hallway, he winced, very narrowly avoided shrieking in fright, and hurriedly stepped back to where he'd been before entering, much to the shock and partial consternation of his six companions. But then he turned his head and hurriedly gave them a 'shush' gesture, and they all quickly calmed themselves down and got as quiet as possible. And just in time, for literally one second passed before the air was audibly split by the sound of an alerted noise that sounded like a mixture between a hiss and a sharp blade scraping across stone.

As it turned out, the reason Robin had reacted the way he had upon entering the hallway where the basement entrance was located was due to having caught sight of none other than the third construct that Geo-Force had summoned for security, designed to resemble a snake. And not just any snake, but a cobra no less. In fact, the only reason Robin had managed to enter the hallway and get back out without the construct seeing him and giving the game away was because the ominous reddish sandstone serpent construct had had its head turned and was facing the wall directly to its right after having come into the hallway from the path leading down to the final hallway leading to the front door of the tower.

But, as had been hinted, the sound of the slight hissing noise that Robin had made right before jumping back into hiding, combined with the wind displacement caused by Robin's rapid movement to get back into hiding, had alerted the construct, and it had rapidly turned its head to face the direction the noise had come from, hissing savagely in an alerted tone. For a tense moment, the construct stared venomously in the direction it had heard the noise. Then the construct hissed, and proceeded to slowly slither across the floor down towards the entrance to the adjacent hallway at the opposite end of its current location. Upon reaching the entrance to the opposite hallway, the construct turned its head . . . and saw nothing.

The construct's eyes narrowed, and it leaned its head forward, gazing intently in a dangerously focused effort at finding whatever had made the noises that had alerted it. Still it saw nothing. Hissing in suspicion, it's literally dusty tongue vibrating vividly from its closed mouth, the construct proceeded to slowly slither its way up the ramp-like path that the hallway it was looking in consisted of. Upon reaching the top of the ramp and the entrance to the other hallway directly connecting, the construct still didn't see anything, and it hissed once again as it proceeded to slither through the hallway, still hard at work in searching for whatever had alerted it.

As luck would have it, the construct would have already found the beings collectively responsible for alerting if it had happened to look up towards the ceiling after it had turned its head to look inside the upwards sloping hallway. As it turned out, Raven had managed to safely get herself and her six friends into hiding by levitating them all up into the air to the point that they were almost flattened against the ceiling. All of one minute after the snake construct's tail had vanished into the hallway at the top of the ramp, Raven swiftly, yet silently, hovered herself and the other Titans into the hallway that their destination was located at, and had them all lowered down to the floor directly in front of the doors leading into the basement.

Upon landing, the seven teens needed only to look directly at the doors to get a good idea that they were on the right track. "What's that stuff drawn all over the doors?" Terra asked.

"I recognize these," said Raven. She pointed at one of the very unusual and arcane looking symbols that had been drawn on the doors. "Runes like these are very commonly known among demonologists and others who work in studying, observing, and hunting the supernatural. These are designed to magically prevent anything that either naturally exists as incorporeal or can assume incorporeal forms from entering areas."

"So in other words," said Beast Boy. "This is why you couldn't access the basement while in your soul self form."

"Indeed."

"Well that means we're definitely on the right track," Robin agreed. "But why couldn't Cyborg's drones enter?"

"Does that matter?" Terra asked.

"You can never be too careful," said Aqualad. He looked at the doors once more, and his eyes narrowed as he saw another unfamiliar element that had most certainly not been present before Geo-Force had come to visit. "What are those devices attached along the sides and top of the doors?"

The other six teens looked closely at the doors and saw the devices in question, which looked like a mixture between miniature flashlights and mechanical dart guns. And as if to advertise their presence, all of the devices had a bright yellow glow coming from inside the 'barrels'. "No idea what those are," said Starfire.

"Be surprised if you did have any idea what those are," said Robin. "Though I have to admit, I'm not sure if I've even seen anything like that."

"Leave it to me," said Cyborg. He walked over to the keypad device next to the door and started pressing on the keys. "Just a moment, just a moment, aha, here we are."

"What is it?" Robin asked.

"I remember from some of my failed attempts at getting my drones past these doors how the last thing I could clearly see from the footage before they shut down was the screens seemingly beginning to get all crackly and electricity filled immediately after a droning beeping sound. And now I've figured out why."

Cyborg pointed towards the top of the doors. "See that tiny little video camera TV screen device over there on the top of the doors?"

The other six teens looked in the direction Cyborg was pointing, and saw the device in question, and it had a very noticeable green glow emanating from the screen. "What's that?" Robin asked.

"For starters," Cyborg responded, "Geo-Force, of course, has changed the password for entering the basement. Now hacking into this keypad and getting the doors open is currently proving not really all that hard, but here's the catch I just found." He pointed back at the device at the top of the doors once more. "Apparently, once the doors are open, this device is designed to subject whoever or whatever happens to be in front of the open doors to a DNA scan. The machine gets a match, free entry. Doesn't match . . ." he pointed at the various flashlight dart gun devices lined across the sides and top of the doors. "Boom. These little buggers go off and zap you into next year."

Terra gulped, looked at the devices again, and found herself mentally wincing as she thought of how very painful it would probably be to be exposed to that level of electricity. "Can you shut it off?"

"Is the H.I.V.E. a bunch of losers?" Cyborg responded. "You bet I can. Just give me a couple seconds and," he pressed another few keys, and with a small electronic beep the glowing light emanating from the devices shut off, and the doors opened. The Titans were now free to enter the basement and rescue the captive members of Titans East.

 **And just like that, another chapter done! Once again, here's to hoping that you enjoyed reading this chapter and leave a respectable amount of feedback! And just like with the last 2 chapters I posted, it is MANDATORY that I receive AT LEAST 1 review for this new chapter by the time I finish the next chapter. This chapter doesn't receive any reviews by the time I finish the next chapter, I will not, and I mean WILL NOT, post it until this chapter receives the MINIMUM review quota. Ok? Good. Once again, hope you enjoyed! ^_^**

 **Coming up Next: The Titans, plus Aqualad and Terra, have finally rescued the captive members of Titans East. And with that out of the way, it's time to get the show on the road!**


	17. The Rescue

**Hey there people! Guess what!? A new chapter! I just updated this story yesterday and I've already got a new chapter? Wow I must be on a role! But nonetheless, here's to hoping you read, review, and enjoy! And in this new chapter, with Terra, Aqualad, and the Jump City Titans having managed to get into Titans Tower East and rescue the captive members of Titans East, it's time to get the epic rocky show on the road! ^_^**

 **A/N: But first, just to keep the lawyers from going after me, I do not own Teen Titans.**

 **Chapter 16:**

 **The Rescue**

Seconds later, the Titans received the final bit of confirmation they needed that the basement was indeed where their captive friends were being held when they heard a pair of voices from inside the basement abruptly yell, "Quien esta ahi?!"

"SSSSHHHH," hissed another familiar voice from the same location. "Quiet you fools, that could be Aqualad."

"Silencio porfavor," said a female voice. "You wouldn't want to give our friends away if it turns out they're here."

Aqualad smiled. He'd heard all he needed to hear. "Yep, they're definitely here."

Robin nodded his head. "Any way you can let them know it's you before we enter? I don't want to go in there with them without them knowing for sure that it's us. If they think it's Geo-Force coming in, they might make more noise that could attract the attention of the constructs."

"Have no fear Robin," replied the Atlantean. "I know just what to do." He raised his left hand, closing his eyes simultaneously. For a few minutes, Aqualad remained standing still in this position. Then, right as Terra and the Titans were starting to wonder just what was supposed to be happening, Beast Boy managed to overhear the very slight noise of what sounded like water dripping coming from inside the basement. Terra and the rest of the Jump City Titans eventually managed to hear this noise as well.

As if to further prove that Aqualad was responsible for the source behind the noise, they then heard Speedy quietly state, "Yep, no doubt about it now. Aqualad's in the house."

Aqualad smiled, lowered his hand, and opened his eyes. The sound of the dripping water ceased seconds later. The Atlantean turned his head to face his six friends he'd brought along to help him. "We're free to enter."

Robin was happy to oblige, and he entered first. The other six teens followed close behind. The moment they all reached the bottom of the stairs and entered into the basement proper, the smiles on the faces of the four captives was all they needed to see. They were going to successfully complete their mission. The day would once again be saved.

. . . . .

Speedy couldn't have possibly had a wider smile on his face at the sight of Aqualad and the Jump City Titans walking down the stairs and into the basement proper of Titans Tower East. "I knew you'd make it in time," he thought to himself.

The other three captives, likewise looked quite joyous at the sight of their newly arrived chance at salvation. "About time you showed up Sparky," said Bumblebee.

Cyborg chuckled. "Planned to get here sooner," said the half robot. "But to make a long story short, we hit a few roadblocks. In fact, you could say we had to take quite a rocky road."

"I can imagine," said Bumblebee, smirking slightly at the very appropriate pun that Cyborg had managed to use.

"Well nonetheless," said Speedy as he moved off towards the rock pillar serving as part of one of the walls for his cage that he'd deliberately sawed free a portion of, "you're here now, and it's time to get this show on the road." And immediately after he said this, the ginger haired archer pressed his hands against the segment in question, and with a groan of exertion, proceeded to push the entire segment he'd sawn loose forward and out of position sufficiently to allow himself to exit his cage.

Aqualad and the other Titans watched this happen, and found themselves nodding their heads in respect. "I should have guessed you'd be just as hard at work in setting things up for an escape," said Aqualad.

Speedy chuckled. "You know me," said the archer. "I can be quite smart when I need to be."

"Ain't that the truth?" Bumblebee asked. Mas and Menos chuckled in agreement.

"Haha, very funny," said Speedy in a half sarcastic and half pleased tone of voice. He walked on over to where Aqualad and the founding Titans had gathered, and then turned around to face Bumblebee. "How are your wings Bee?" he asked.

Bumblebee looked carefully at her wings. At first glance, they seemed perfectly well healed and potentially even strong enough now to fully support her weight for extended lengths of time for sustained flight. Still . . . "I think they're ok, but I'd rather not jump to any definite conclusions just yet, especially not when I'm dangling over a virtually bottomless chasm."

Starfire flew over to where the winger meta-human was dangling, grabbed onto the stalactite encasing Bumblebee's right wrist, and started pulling on it. "Fear not friend," said the Tamaranean. "Wings or no wings, we'll have you free in a flattened absence of time."

Robin mentally sniggered at Starfire's adorkable language gaffe. "Don't ever change Star," he thought to himself.

With one more mighty tug, Starfire managed to snap the stalactite loose from its mooring in the ceiling. With that being accomplished, the Tamaranean then made careful note to help Bumblebee sling her newly freed right arm around her rescuer's shoulders before then proceeding to snap the other stalactite lose as well. With both stalactites now disconnected from the ceiling, Starfire proceeded to fly Bumblebee safely over to the solid floor on the exact same side of the chasm that all their friends apart from Menos were located on. The instant Bumblebee had both her feet planted firmly on the floor, she emphatically slammed the two disconnected stalactites together as if trying to initiate a thunder clap, causing the two stony restraints to shatter into rubble.

Meanwhile, at the same time that Starfire was busy helping out Bumblebee, Raven was hard at work in taking care of Mas and Menos. Seconds after Starfire had first flown up to Bumblebee, the teenage sorceress had proceeded to encase the sandy chains pinioning Mas to his respective area of the wall in her shadowy energy and then cause them to burst into harmless grains of sand with a snap of her fingers. And immediately after freeing Mas, Raven had then turned around and repeated the process for Menos. And by the time Bumblebee had smashed the stalactites that had encased her hands into rubble, Raven had already used her shadowy powers to levitate Menos across the chasm to join them all. All of three seconds passed Menos being successfully brought across the chasm and released from the shadowy energy before Mas ran over and gave his brother a big hug, which Menos eagerly returned. In that instant, all the Titans, founding branch and East division alike, found themselves smiling.

Then Speedy happened to turn his head to look behind him, and his eyes narrowed in a mixture of confusion and suspicion upon finally noticing Terra present in the room as well. "Who's she?"

The other Titans turned their heads to see what Speedy was talking about, and the other three former captives found themselves sharing Speedy's confused suspicion. But Aqualad waved his hand as if to say 'nothing to worry', and simply responded, "She's a friend. Admittedly, she's had a bit of a dark and rocky history where we're involved, but she's on our side."

In that instant, Speedy's eyes widened as he abruptly realized how actually quite familiar the mystery girl in question looked. "Wait a minute," he then said. "I think I've heard of you before. Are you. . .?"

"Terra?" said Terra. She nodded her head. "Yep, that's me."

"Oh yeah," said Bumblebee as she pointed at Terra with a wide eyed look of recognition on her own face, "I remember hearing about you now. Our friends told us a lot about you." Her eyes narrowed in confusion again. "Aren't you supposed to be a stone statue right now?"

Terra chuckled nervously, looked down at her feet, and then back up at Bumblebee. "I used to be, but . . . well . . . it's complicated."

Bumblebee raised her eyebrow. "I can imagine."

Mas and Menos, however, judging by the looks that came on their faces upon hearing Bumblebee mentioning Terra's time as a 'stone statue', had a different matter on their minds.

"Eso es lo que estas pensando?!" shouted Mas. "Que pasa con sus acciones que llevaron a que?!"

"Si," Menos agreed, pointing his left pointer finger at Terra in a childishly accusatory fashion. "Ella no se puede confiar! Ella trabajo para Slade! Rraicionado nuestros amigos y trato de matarlows! Rompio el Corazon de nuestro amigo verde!"

Terra winced, gritting her teeth and closing her eyes as she listened to what the two diminutive Spanish speaking twin speedsters were saying. While she didn't entirely understand what they were saying, she had a feeling that they did not appear to have a very high opinion of her.

Aqualad leaned over and placed his hands on the shoulders of the two twins. "Lay it off guys," said the Atlantean. "The past is the past, and she's changed since then. Besides, we've got more important things to worry about right now."

"Aqualad's right," said Bumblebee. "Dark and morally dissonant a history she may have, we've got more literally earthshaking and actively villainous things to worry about right now."

Speedy raised his own eyebrow, and looked over at Bumblebee. "They have a point you know." He lifted up his hands to forestall any complaints that Aqualad may have potentially sent his way otherwise. "Look, I only understand one or two words in that entire exchange, but I still have a pretty good idea what they were likely referring to, and I doubt it's a wise idea to ignore all that."

"Give it a rest man," said Aqualad.

"I'm serious!" Speedy yelled.

"Speedy I get it," said Bumblebee. "I understand that you're concerned. Believe me, under other circumstances, I'm sure that I'd be just as concerned as you are. But right now, we've got bigger things to worry about. And besides, from what I can see, Aqualad and our friends in Jump City seem to trust her, and that's good enough for me."

Speedy raised his eyebrow, looked over at Terra, then at Aqualad and the Jump City Titans, and then back at Bumblebee. "If you say so."

"Good," said Bumblebee. She clapped her hands together. "Now let's get our heads together people, we've got work to do, and a certain evil geomancer named Geo-Force in our territory that we need to give a serious butt whooping."

"Yeah," said Terra. "About that . . ."

"He's her brother," said Beast Boy.

"Say what?!" asked Bumblebee. Speedy and the twins, meanwhile, seemed on the verge of jumping to some considerably more unpleasant conclusions.

Aqualad noticed this, and hurriedly held his hands out to forestall any arguments. "Hey! Hey!" he shouted. "Watch it! I already told you, she's not like she used to be!"

"Aqualad's right," said Bumblebee, already snapped out of her earlier surprise at learning about Terra's apparent familial connection to Geo-Force. "We shouldn't be that quick to assume, especially not when we've got bigger things to worry about right now. Besides," she pointed at Raven. "Who are we to judge?"

Speedy, Mas, and Menos all turned their heads in unison to look at Raven, thought to themselves, and then sheepishly grimaced with a clear 'touché' look on their faces. "Fair point," said Speedy.

Terra raised her eyebrow. "What's that all about?"

"Time and place Terra," said Raven.

"Raven's right," said Robin. "And on another note." He looked back at the newly released former captive members of Titans East, "speaking of Geo-Force, as of yesterday, we have reason to believe that he may be under the effects of mind control."

"Oh you have _got_ to be kidding me!" Speedy yelled in a quite exasperated sounding tone.

"No really!" said Aqualad. "We have evidence!"

Speedy glared at the Atlantean. "Show me."

Aqualad turned his head to face Cyborg, who was already in the midst of accessing some files in the small computer in his right arm. Upon accessing the data that had been gathered and sent to him regarding the mind control technology, he extended his right arm so that Speedy and the other Titans East members could get a good look. "These were found inside a giant sea monster that was dispatched to Jump City bay to take out Aqualad and prevent him from blowing the whistle to us, after we managed to unwittingly shut it down and set it free from the mind control it turns out to have been under at that particular time."

"So?" Speedy asked.

"We also have reason to believe that this monster was sent after Aqualad by whoever that mysterious master that Geo-Force claims to be working for is," said Robin. "And that being said," he pointed at Bumblebee. "Do you or any of the others remember hearing Geo-Force or Cheshire saying anything about some sort of conversion?"

"Yes," said Bumblebee. "Geo-Force himself briefly mentioned it when he first locked us up. And Cheshire boasted about it more than once."

"Well that being said," Aqualad broke in. "We have reason to believe that not only is this same technology inside Geo-Force and actively controlling him, but that his master plans to implant it inside you guys as well, plus me."

For a brief moment, one could have heard a pin drop as the four former captives processed this information, their eyes wide with stunned shock and their mouths just barely avoiding dropping open. "That . . . actually makes sense," said Speedy.

"And furthermore," said Robin as he proceeded to open up his communicator and bring up the internet files he'd found the previous evening, which he then allowed the former captives to take a look at, "It makes even more sense when you add in the fact that he's both an official superhero _and_ an official ambassador for the League."

"He's what?!" Speedy yelled before he then lifted his head towards the ceiling, groaned, and then bitterly grumbled, "Man, Green Arrow never tells me anything anymore."

"Well I'll be," Bumblebee agreed. "Well in that case, how _did_ you guys manage to shut that tech down in that monster you mentioned?"

"Well right now," said Cyborg. "The only guaranteed permanent way that we know of to shut that tech down is electrocution."

"Oh," said Bumblebee. She directed her eyes towards the ceiling a sheepish half smile and half grimace on her face. "That complicates things."

"You think?" Speedy grumbled.

"Well never mind that for now," said Aqualad. "At the very least, all we need to worry about is to fight him sufficiently enough to at least knock him out, put him under our custody, and make sure that his master doesn't come along and mess things up. Once all that's out of the way, we can put as much focus as possible in both confirming whether or not he's truly mind controlled and figuring out a way to set him free if he is."

"Sounds fair to me," said Bumblebee.

"I'm sold," said Speedy. "Willingly evil or not, at least I'll still get the chance to kick his butt today."

"That's the spirit," said Robin.

"Indeed," said Cyborg as he shut off his arm computer. "And regardless of how things unfold in regard to Geo-Force, as long as we take him down in some capacity today and prevent his master from dropping by to visit tomorrow, all's well that ends well."

"Yeah no kidding," said Bumblebee. She looked over at Speedy. "Isn't that right Speedy?"

Terra, Aqualad, and the Jump City Titans all looked over at Speedy, who indeed now looked as if he'd just remembered something. "Oh right yes, I almost forgot!" The archer looked at the seven teens who'd arrived to rescue him. "Yesterday morning, we overheard Geo-Force talking with Cheshire outside the door to the basement, and we figured out what that mysterious master appears to be planning."

At the sound of this, all seven members of the rescue party, particularly Robin, were instantly listening. "What is it?" the Boy Wonder asked.

"According to what we heard," Speedy began, "apparently, once that master of his has arrived here and finished whatever it is he wants here with us and Steel City, he plans to send Geo-Force out to take over Jump City as well."

"Say what?!" Beast Boy yelled.

"And that's just one single step," Speedy continued. "Reportedly, after Steel City and Jump City have been subjugated, Geo-Force is reportedly supposed to then be sent to subject two more American cities, one of them located at around the northernmost point, and the other at the southernmost point, to the same treatment. And after that, the plan is to subjugate one more city at around the exact center point of the country."

"In other words, likely Central City," said Robin.

"Exactly," Speedy agreed. "And after that, reportedly the master says that it should be easy for him to expand his forces across America from all directions from that point on until he finally subjugates the entire country. And from that point, all he needs is to keep making enough progress, and he could just as easily allow the subjugation to spread across the entire planet."

The rescue party was stunned speechless. They'd already been expecting something major to be going down, but even then they hadn't guessed that they'd be stumbling into something as grand scale as what Speedy had just now explained. Just what had they gotten themselves into?

"Well in that case," said Robin. "We'd best get back to work as soon as possible." He looked back at the rescued captives. "You think you guys are ready for a fight?"

Bumblebee smiled, as did the ginger haired archer and twin 10-year old speedsters. "You bet we are! Don't know about ya'll, but I'm ready to get buzzing!"

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" said Cyborg, his right thumb raised in an approving gesture.

Terra, however, was directing a very worried glance to the still open doorway at the top of the stairs leading into the basement. "Um guys?"

"Not now Terra," said Robin.

"Guys?" Terra asked again, her voice now sounding even more anxious.

Robin turned his head to face Terra, the other Titans likewise directing their gazes towards her. "I said not now . . ."

Robin very noticeably paused, his masked eyes widening and his mouth snapping shut as he noticed the very real and dangerous reason why Terra had been trying to get his attention. The other Titans were likewise wide-eyed and silent as they to noticed how very deeply in trouble they were now at risk of finding themselves in. At the very top of the stairs, directly within the open doorway, staring down the stairs and straight at the 11 kids and young adults gathered in the basement with an apparent wide-eyed look of shock of its own on its face, was none other than the living stone snake construct.

. . . . .

For a tense moment that seemed to last an eternity, the 11 young heroes and the living stone cobra remained where they were, staring intently at each other in the eyes in a vicious standoff. At the same time this was happening, Robin mentally cursed. "It must have returned to this area not too long ago," he thought to himself. "And worse, since Beast Boy didn't comment on it, we must have been so distracted that not even he heard it come back." Then the construct leaned its head forward, its face tightening into a venomous glare. "Oh . . . here we go," thought Robin.

The construct started rearing up, its mouth starting to open and release its tongue. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos," Raven hurriedly shouted as she extended her now black glowing hand at the construct. The construct was encased in shadowy energy, freezing it into position just as it opened its mouth and extended its tongue to the fullest. For a brief few seconds, it seemed as if Raven were in the midst of a struggle against the construct to prevent it from somehow escaping from the energy it was now encased in. Then, with a clearly relieved exhale from Raven, the shadowy energy faded out of existence and the construct simultaneously crumbled to dust.

"Well," said Speedy. "That certainly makes things a little easier."

"Don't get too comfortable," said Raven. "I may have just now destroyed it, but I can't say that I've completely prevented it from causing any trouble. For all we know, it may very well have managed to send out a distress call before I destroyed it."

"Well whether it sent one out or not," said Robin, "we'd best act as if it did. Come on guys, let's get moving. We were already planning on revealing our presence to Geo-Force after getting you guys free anyway, and the last thing we need is for us to be stuck down here when Geo-Force comes to deal with us." The other Titans did not need to be told twice, and they all stampeded up the stairs and out of the basement.

As they continued to stampede through the halls and corridors outside the basement, the entire group soon found themselves skidding to a halt once again when they abruptly found themselves on the verge of colliding with the vulture construct. The construct in question had happened to be flying around in the hallway they'd just entered, and it reared upward, skidding in midair to a stop at the sight of the intruders and escaped captives. But unfortunately, this time Raven was just a couple seconds too late in her reaction time, and the construct managed to unleash a blaring series of clearly alarmed squawks before Raven managed to encase it in shadow energy and subject it to the same fate as the snake construct.

Even as the dust that remained of the construct showered down upon the floor, Raven was already wincing at her timing. Robin didn't need to use his mental link with Raven to know what she was thinking at that moment. "Well guys," said the Boy Wonder, "if our cover wasn't already blown with the snake construct, it's definitely been blown now."

Speedy snorted. "Too bad," the archer grunted. He intertwined his fingers and flexed his hands outward. "I say we bring the pain."

"While I applaud your enthusiasm," said Robin, "we're not entirely ready to fight Geo-Force just yet. We still need to get your bow and some arrows."

"Don't forget Bee's stingers," Cyborg added.

"I was just about to mention all that," said Bumblebee. She looked over at Cyborg. "Did you manage to see where Dust Boy had them hidden while you were sneaking your way to the basement?"

"Sure did," said Cyborg. "We actually shouldn't be too far away."

"Well then what are waiting for?" Speedy yelled. "Come on guys! Let's move! Move! Move! Move!" Galvanized back into movement, the group hurried off through the halls past the area where the vulture construct had been hovering, Beast Boy even going so far as to morph into a cheetah. And just like that, Beast Boy rocketed ahead of the other members of the group.

Unfortunately, as it would soon turn out, Beast Boy's managing to zip his way ahead of the others in his cheetah form turned out to be both a blessing and a curse not too long after they all entered the hallway where the one armory closet the original rescue team had passed. It turned out to be a blessing in that the other 10 members of the group got fair warning about the wolf construct's presence in said hallway; but turned out to be a curse in that the fair warning was provided as a result of them hearing the construct lunging from a connecting side hallway seemingly out of nowhere and plowing right into Beast Boy.

The two beasts crashed through the nearby wall straight into the trashed and dusty gym of Titans Tower East, at which point they then proceeded to engage in a vicious wrestling match. The match proper actually began with the wolf construct rearing up its head and attempting to bite down on Beast Boy's neck. Beast Boy, thankfully managed to turn into a lion and position his head sufficiently enough just in time for the construct's efforts to be impeded by his lion form's thick hairy mane. Beast Boy roared, lifted his hind paws up against the construct's stony chest and pushed it upward and away. In a flash, Beast Boy the lion got up on his feet as the construct crash landed hard on its face and skidded to a halt inches away from crashing into the wall immediately opposite the one they'd crashed through to enter the gym.

The snowy marble colored living stone wolf jumped back onto its feet in a complete 180, snarled at Beast Boy, and charged towards the verdant green flesh and blood lion. Beast Boy roared, and reared up on his hind legs just as the construct lunged towards him, resulting in the two beasts slamming their front paws together and causing them to start pushing against each other's front paws. The wolf construct snapped its teeth in the direction of Beast Boy's face, but the green lion swung his head to his left and dodged the attack, and then took advantage of the moment when the construct moved its head back by pushing extra hard against the stony beast's front paws, causing both himself and his foe to go tumbling onto the floor and rolling around straight back towards the wall opposite the one they'd entered through.

Upon impact with that very wall, the two battling beasts were jolted apart. The construct managed to struggle onto its feet and shake its head side to side to regain its bearings, only to then feel something soft and furry slam against the right side of its head. Being made of stone, the blow proved ineffective, and its attention was soon further directed at just how ineffective the blow had been when it heard a pained growling coming from right in front of it. The construct looked directly in front of it just in time to see Beast Boy the lion roaring and growling in pain towards the ceiling with his eyes closed while holding up his left paw seemingly as if it were throbbing from a painful impact. The construct snarled, lifted up its own left front paw, and slammed it against the right side of Beast Boy's own head. And unlike with Beast Boy's attempt at this very same type of attack, the construct's blow proved strong enough to send the shapeshifter flying away to the side sufficiently enough to slam painfully into the left side wall of the gym.

Beast Boy had just enough time to groan, lift up his head, and shake it side to side before the wolf construct snapped its teeth around the changeling's tail, lifted him up in the air and threw him over in the opposite direction, causing the green lion to crash land and skid to a halt in the center of the gym. Beast Boy rolled over onto his back, groaning in pain, only to then feel a heavy impact land on him, and he opened his eyes in time to see the wolf construct once again standing over him, ready to try to bite down towards his throat once more. Growling and roaring, Beast Boy viciously jerked and thrashed and swung his forelegs around to thwart the construct's efforts to bite his throat, but as the struggle continued, Beast Boy found himself tiring, and his heart crawling up into his throat as the wolf construct started moving noticeably faster and more viciously.

But then, just as Beast Boy was on the verge of wondering just how the battle was going to end, he was unexpectedly saved when a gigantic blue sonic laser burst into the room from the direction of the hole that had been created by his entry into the gym alongside the construct, slammed into and engulfed the wolf construct, and sent it flying to the side off of Beast Boy and crashing right into the opposite wall. Beast Boy briefly looked in the direction of the construct, then back towards the entrance hole in time to see Cyborg standing right there with his left arm's sonic cannon smoking and at the ready.

"Hey Lassie!" Cyborg shouted, clearly directing his yell towards the construct, "you're supposed to _save_ Timmy! Not _kill_ him!"

The wolf construct snapped its head in Cyborg and Beast Boy's direction, roared furiously, and snapped back onto its feet before charging and lunging towards the cyborg and still downed changeling. Beast Boy hurriedly tensed himself up for impact and Cyborg prepared to fire his sonic cannon again.

But then the wolf construct abruptly froze in position in midair, black energy encasing it. Beast Boy and Cyborg turned their heads in time to see Raven now standing right behind Cyborg, working her magic on the wolf construct. But unlike with the vulture and snake constructs, the wolf construct wasn't immobilized by Raven's power, and it snarled and tensed itself up as if trying to force itself free from the shadowy energy encasing it. Raven tensed herself up in her own position, closing her eyes and gritting her teeth as she appeared to fight to prevent the construct from breaking free.

As the struggle continued between Raven and the construct, the construct began to very noticeably start cracking. After what seemed like an eternity, the construct's entire body became encased in cracks as well as the shadowy energy it was struggling against. Eventually, the construct lifted its head upwards and back, emitting a booming gravelly howling noise. And then, with a resounding 'BOOM' the construct exploded into dust, simultaneously dissipating the shadowy energy that had been encasing it.

As the dust settled upon the floor of the gym, Raven collapsed onto her hands and knees, panting from the effort she'd put into shutting down the wolf construct. Beast Boy and Cyborg walked over to her, extending their hands towards her to help her up. Raven gratefully accepted the help and let her two friends pull her back up on her feet. "Are you alright Rae?" Beast Boy asked.

Raven smirked good naturedly. "It's Raven."

"Yep, she's definitely alright," said Cyborg.

"Dude," said Beast Boy, a deadpan glare on his face directed towards Cyborg. "Really?"

"You guys ok?"

Beast Boy, Raven, and Cyborg turned their heads and saw Robin and Starfire nearby. Cyborg gave them a thumbs up. "We're good."

"Excellent."

The Jump City Titans turned their heads in time to see Speedy step forward from the armory closet with his bow in his hands, and his newly refilled quiver back across his back. Bumblebee hovered out of the same closet, her stingers back in her own hands. Aqualad, Terra, and Mas and Menos were standing proudly nearby the open doors. "It's show time," said the archer.

"Now we're talking," said Terra as she rammed her right fist into her open left palm.

Robin smiled. "Titans move!"

The entire group stampeded away from the armory closet and gym and ran all the way back to the common room. Upon entry, they were all starting to head towards the entrance to the stairwell leading up to the rooftop when they heard an ominous rumbling noise coming from the direction of the covered up front windows. They turned their heads, and saw the walls of stone covering up the windows noticeably shaking, as if something were causing them to vibrate. Then, as the 11-member group of intruders and former captives continued to watch, the still vibrating rocky walls starting to slowly lower. It was clear that Geo-Force had arrived on the scene and chosen to access the tower's interior through the hole he'd busted in the windows so many days prior rather than head off the Titans at the rooftop entrance.

In that moment, Speedy knew just what to do. He turned his head to Robin. "Robin, do you think you and your team mates will be ready to fight within the next few seconds?"

Robin looked at his four direct teammates, then back at Speedy. They all nodded. "Sure can."

"Good." Speedy turned his head to face the front windows of the tower once more, drawing out seven arrows from his quiver and drawing them back on the bow while aiming them straight at the gaping hole in the central front window. "Because it's high time we gave Geo-Force an _extra_ warm welcome."

. . . . .

Geo-Force was not in the best of moods. His day had started out seemingly pleasant enough, with nothing eventful occurring through the entirety of the earlier parts of the morning to the point that he'd eventually decided that he could go ahead and take a little nap in his cave after his morning walk around the island shore. Then, while he was in the midst of a fitful dream (albeit one very often getting interspersed with an intangible clone of himself abruptly popping up and shouting and likewise making things unpleasant), he had ended up briefly awakened when he'd heard the telepathic voice of his living stone snake construct in his head.

"Master," it had stated in a slightly worried tone before it had abruptly paused in its speech and its telepathic presence had suddenly faded out of his mind.

Geo-Force had understandably been a little unnerved by the occurrence. He'd called for it a couple times, but the construct hadn't answered. In the end, he'd chosen to go back to sleep, but not before sending a telepathic command to his other constructs to remain on guard (in the case of the wolf construct) and to go check on the sake construct (in the case of the vulture construct).

Unfortunately, Geo-Force had only managed to sleep for about another 5 or so minutes before he was then very emphatically woken up by the sound of the telepathic voice of the vulture construct shouting in alarm, "Alert! Alert! Master alert! There are intruders in the tower! And they released the . . .!" only for its own voice to pause just as abruptly as the snake construct's and its mental presence to fade out of his mind.

In that instant, Geo-Force had been completely convinced that there was something wrong, and he'd gotten up on his feet, fully awake now, and started dusting himself off and stretching to get himself into proper condition, but not before telepathically alerting the wolf construct to the situation and commanding it to go after the intruders and escaped captives. Unfortunately, by the time he'd exited his cave and started running around the side of the tower, he'd managed to hear the wolf construct's telepathic voice howl out an angry despairing 'NO!' before it to ended up abruptly ceasing in its speech and faded out of Geo-Force's mind.

At that point, Geo-Force was just plain angry, and he'd noticeably quickened in his pace, growling inarticulately in rage at how rapidly things were now spiraling out of control. In fact, by the time he'd reached the front of the tower, summoned a flying boulder to ride on, and levitated himself on the boulder all the way to the area where the window he'd long ago smashed through was located, he was still pissed off. "I _knew_ it was a bad idea to keep that rooftop entrance uncovered!" he thought to himself angrily, his eyes narrowed and his teeth gritted in a feral snarl.

Thinking only of revenge and anger at that point, he extended his right palm towards the layers of stone in front of him, concentrating on them. Within seconds, the stony walls started vibrating, and then began to slowly lower away from their position. As this happened, Geo-Force growled angrily. "It ends NOW."

However, as prepared as he was for a fight, he most certainly had not at all seen coming what happened immediately after the front windows had become fully uncovered. All of two seconds passed the gaping hole in the central window becoming completely uncovered before seven very familiar looking arrow-like projectiles came zooming out of the hole and pounded into his chest. But it wasn't so much the impact against his chest alone that proved particularly surprising, but rather the tremendous explosion of flames that unfolded immediately after the arrows collided with the geomancer's chest. With a surprised shriek, Geo-Force was sent flying off of the flying rock and went hurtling down towards the ground.

Even as he was hurtling down from the sky, Geo-Force barely had any time to gain his bearings before he then heard a familiar voice yell, "Titans go!" His eyes widening, Geo-Force managed to look back towards the tower just in time to see four familiar looking disk-like objects, a jet of what looked like green flames, a pitch black lightning bolt like energy beam, and a massive brilliant blue sonic laser hurtling towards him.

The four incoming attacks slammed into his chest, sending him hurtling straight down in a diagonal fashion towards the ground, the four disks exploding into a conjoined burst of fire in the process. Within seconds, the four combined attacks caused Geo-Force to go pounding down onto the shore in front of the tower. A smoking circle of cracked earth with Geo-Force lying on top was left behind after the smoke from the explosive disks and the three energy blasts had faded away.

Geo-Force lifted himself up into a seated position, rubbed the back of his head, and groaned in pain and irritation at what had just happened. But then, seconds after he got back up onto his feet, he was sent stumbling backward when he was smacked in the face by what appeared to be a frayed cable with electricity actively crackling at the end. While the electricity caused him no harm, the impact against his face and the blinding light that flashed in his eyes as a result of the electricity being exposed to his face caused the geomancer to go stumbling backward quite disoriented, and he ended up involuntarily turning around on one foot and falling flat on his face.

Geo-Force got up, shaking his head side to side rapidly in anger, and he turned his head in time to see the cable that had smacked him in the face come to a landing directly in front of where the front door to the tower was supposed to be located followed soon afterward by a green pteranodon gently coming to a landing a good few feet in front of it. The pteranodon shifted into a familiar green humanoid form, and four other familiar young adults came to a landing in various positions within the same basic overall area. "You," Geo-Force growled, his eyes narrowing.

The Teen Titans smiled happily. "Us," Robin agreed.

Geo-Force snarled again, now even angrier. But then another familiar voice from seemingly up in the sky yelled out, "And they're not alone!"

Geo-Force looked up in time to see that Speedy had now jumped out through the hole in the central top window and had now sent three arrows flying from his quiver. The projectiles slammed into Geo-Force's chest before he had a chance to react, and exploded into bursts of flame, sending the geomancer stumbling backward.

Geo-Force managed to avoid losing his footing, and he lifted his head back up, only to see Bumblebee now fluttering down in his direction as well, firing streams of electricity from her stingers towards him. The two lightning bolts slammed into the geomancer's chest, and though they caused him no harm, they were successful in annoying him and causing him to lift his arms and hands in a defensive position as the force of the voltage beams pushed him backwards towards the ocean.

Geo-Force was a couple feet away from entering the area where the tide was currently capable of covering when he abruptly came to a stop and the beams of electricity pushing against him faded away just as abruptly. Geo-Force tensed up at this, lowered his arms, and glared at the sight of how Speedy and Bumblebee had now landed and taken position alongside their five friends from Jump City. He lifted his fist in preparation for an attack, only to then be tripped up and sent spinning in circles when he felt a tremendous impact of something crashing into him from the left side at an impossibly fast speed.

Geo-Force never got the chance to decrease in spinning speed in the slightest as the same mysterious force that had slammed into him earlier continued to slam into him again and again from left and right. The ultrafast force then started zooming around him in circles, sweeping him upwards in a tornado of sand that was formed by the swiftness of the force's movement. The sand tornado abruptly vanished when Geo-Force was a good mile or two above the ground, the red blur responsible for causing it abruptly appearing directly above him before fading away into the shape of none other than Mas and Menos holding each other's hands. Geo-Force had just enough time to blink before the two twins started rapidly kicking him in the chest with both feet at once, sending him rocketing back down towards the ground. He landed with an emphatic pounding noise that sent bursts of sand flying upward. The sand bursts in question didn't even get the chance to dissipate before a red blur zoomed out through them and came to a stop nearby Speedy, fading away back into the familiar shape of Mas and Menos. The twins smiled, and then blew raspberries at Geo-Force in unison.

Geo-Force heard this, and he snapped up into a seated position, snarling wordlessly in rage. He got up on his feet and lifted up his right hand, clearly ready once again to summon an attack. But then he heard yet another distinctive noise coming from behind him, and he turned his head just in time to see a massive wave rise up from the ocean and hurtle straight towards him. The geomancer had just enough time for his eyes to widen and to briefly step backward before the wave slammed down on him. Raven summoned a force field, shielding herself and the other Titans from getting caught in the wave, which crashed loudly against the shadowy wall.

The water receded, leaving Geo-Force lying on the sandy ground coughing and spitting out water. A geyser erupted from the ground a couple feet to the right of the group of ground-based young heroes, and the water pillar transformed into a diagonally oriented ramp of water that connected from the ground to the hole in the central window. No sooner had this ramp formed, when none other than Aqualad jumped out of the window and started sliding down the ramp with Terra clinging onto his back in a piggyback riding position. About ¾ of the way down, Aqualad jumped off the ramp and did a small series of front flips, Terra simultaneously lunging from her position on the Atlantean's back and repeating the maneuver. Both the Atlantean and the half Markovian landed side by side right in front of the other 9 young heroes in a shared classic 3-point superhero landing, their heads lowered and facing the ground, and their hair billowing around in the air.

The wind kicked up by their descent ended, and their hair fell back into position, and Aqualad and Terra lifted their heads and straightened up. They turned their heads and looked each other in the eyes, a silent message passing between them. Then they turned their heads to face Geo-Force once more. "It ends now Geo-Force!" Terra yelled.

Geo-Force's eyes widened at the sound of Terra's voice, and he lifted his head, the shock clear on his face from both having heard that voice, and the sight he'd now just gotten of Terra standing right in front of him in clear allegiance with the Titans. Then the shock vanished, and his face took on a narrow eyed angry glare complete with a gritted toothed snarl. "You traitor," he growled. "My own sister . . . a traitor . . . willing to side with them over your own brother." He straightened back up onto his own two feet, still glaring savagely at Terra. "How could you? After all we went through together when we were still kids before you left, after all the stuff I promised, after everything you had to undergo without me around to help you, after how the very people you call friends treated you, after all my effort leading up to finally reuniting with you again, and you choose to side with the same people who so callously turned their backs on you and still don't fully trust you and never will over me."

For a brief moment, Terra found herself struggling to keep it together and avoid tearing up at the sound of Geo-Force's scathing words that radiated with betrayal. But then she closed her eyes, mentally took a deep breath, and then opened her eyes to face her brother once more. "I know you're angry with me right now Geo-Force," said Terra. "Believe me, I didn't want it to have to come to this anymore then you did. But what you're doing is wrong, and the master you serve is wrong for making you do this, and is just as wrong for even planning to have it done in the first place."

Geo-Force raised his eyebrow, now confused as well as angry. "You dare to speak such slander about me and my master . . .?"

"It's the truth Geo-Force," Terra interrupted. She took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "I may not be viewing this whole mess from the same perspective as you, but I know how to tell the difference between right and wrong, and I know that what you're doing is wrong. Believe me Bryan, I do. I've already enough of the wrong thing to last a lifetime, and I will not let myself be taken down such a path again. Never."

She looked at Geo-Force's face once more. "And as painful it is for me to say this right now, the person I'm talking to right now isn't truly Bryan Markov anymore then I myself am the person that used to so willingly work for Slade and travel down the same road that you currently walk upon. The real Bryan, the brother I knew, knows perfectly well how wrong the actions he's committed over the last few days truly are. And not only that, but he's a hero; a legitimate freaking hero. And heroes know better than this."

Geo-Force snarled in rage. "Do not mention who I used to be! Don't say a word about it! Not one word!" He pointed his finger accusingly at Terra. "You may not want to believe it, but this is reality! This is life! Say what you want, but sometimes life just isn't fair! And you should old enough now to know and accept that knowledge!"

The geomancer stomped his foot, snarling in a mixture of both rage and pain at a newly triggered, quite ill-timed small flash of pain in his head. "And if you want to pull the brutal honesty card, then by all means, I'll gladly play it right back at you! The person you knew me as may be a world away from the person you now see standing before you, but that's just the point isn't it?! Wake up and smell the roses Terra! I'm not the Geo-Force that you've seen in the news! I'm not the Bryan you knew personally and grew up with all the way to age 10! And I'm most certainly not the brother, let alone the person, that you remember! Not anymore!" He lifted his head, eyes still dangerously blazing with fury. "As painful as you might find it to hear, and whatever you might say, and however much you may deny it, you've thrown your lot against me for nothing! Even now you're siding with the same people who turned their backs on you and left you in the dust like so many others for a hopelessly lost cause!"

He took a deep breath, and then exhaled angrily, another flash of pain erupting in his head. "You think that the Bryan you know and remember is still in here somewhere don't you? You think that I can be saved . . . that I even need or want to be saved, isn't that right? Well newsflash, it's not gonna happen! The person standing before you now is here to stay, and the person he used to be neither can, nor will, be saved!" Geo-Force lifted his hands and arms up into the air in a 'behold' gesture, grunting irritably from yet another flash of aching pain in his head. "Let go of the past! Forget the Geo-Force you knew! Cast that memory aside! Because that's all the person you knew even is anymore! A memory Tara! A freaking memory!" He pointed his finger back at Terra and the Titans once more, his teeth gritting into a feral snarl in a mixture of anger and pain from yet another flash of pain. "The Bryan Markov you knew is beyond help! There is nothing left of him to save! The Geo-Force you know is gone! He is dead! The very idea and spirit of who he was has been crushed, erased, swept away into nothing! And in his place, is the new identity standing before you who has been shown the light by the one he now calls master! And he will never come back! Never!" Another flash of pain erupted in his head, and he grunted and growled, briefly lowering his head and closing his eyes. Then the flash of pain ended, and he looked back at Terra.

Terra only shook her head side to side. "You're wrong," the former geomancer stated calmly.

Geo-Force merely stared at Terra, a deadpan look of disbelief on his face. "Wrong?" he stated bluntly. "You dare question my honesty?"

"I don't need to question your honesty," Terra responded, her clenched fists placed upon her hips, and her face now agleam with a happy smile as she gazed calmly back at Geo-Force. "I know that what you're saying isn't true." Her smile widened, her blue eyes gleaming with a mixture of joy, confidence, and hope. "You can say whatever you want against it, believe your own lies as strongly as you please, deny it as much as you wish, but you can't hide the truth. No matter what you do or how hard you try, you can never keep the truth buried. And regardless of all you've said against it, or will say in against it, the truth is even now shining through as clear as the nose on your face."

"You dare insult me?!" Geo-Force snarled, his hands clenching into fists. "I will gladly crush you alongside your friends from Jump City if I have to!"

"No you won't," said Terra. "You'd never hurt me Bryan. You never could. In fact," she folded her arms across her chest, smiling still, "not even your blindly unwilling loyalty to your master will be enough to allow you to hurt me, let alone kill me. You're fighting against it even now."

"Lies!" Geo-Force roared. Yet even as he said the word, he abruptly grimaced, his eyes closing, and a primal howl of anger and pain burst from his mouth as he felt yet another flash of aching pain erupt from within his head. "My loyalty is absolute! My master's control is at full strength! My actions and thoughts are of my own free will!"

Terra shook her head side to side. "No they're not."

"Yes they are!" Geo-Force growled. But again his actions that occurred immediately after he spoke contradicted his words, for he abruptly slapped his hands upon the sides of his head, closed his eyes, and unleashed yet another ear splitting roar of anger and pain. "I am not the Bryan Markov you know! The Bryan Markov is gone! He is dead! He cannot come back! He will not come back! He is not here! He is not here! _I_ am not here!"

Terra's smile widened, her eyes now glowing with even more happiness. Even the 10 official Titans members had likewise happy and hopeful looks on their faces. "You said 'I'!" said Terra.

"No!" Geo-Force growled, his eyes opening and his hands lowering from his head. "You heard wrong! He is gone! He cannot come back! He will not come back! _I_ will not come back!"

"You said it again!" Terra squealed joyously.

Geo-Force let out an inarticulate roar of rage, tensed himself up, and charged head on towards Terra and the Titans, now clearly consumed with anger, his fists clenched, and both his fists and his eyes glowing with a familiar yellow energy. The final battle had begun.

 **And just like that, the new chapter is finished! Boy I'm having so much fun! ^_^ Here's to hoping you all enjoyed reading it, and that you leave plenty of feedback (and remember, it is mandatory that I receive at least ONE review for this chapter by the time I finish the next chapter. I mean it. No review; no new chapter). Again, hope you all had fun!**

 **Coming up Next: The time has come. The final earthshaking battle must now unfold. How will it unfold? Who will win? And what about Geo-Force? Is there truly any good left in him; let alone any chance for the Titans to save him? Or is he too far gone to the point that Terra truly will have to say goodbye forever to the brother she knew? Find out, in the next epic chapter for Geo-Force!**


	18. Terra's Choice

**At last, at long last, the epic new chapter has finally arrived. I hope you're guys are ready (especially you AllenBlaster! I know it's later than I originally said I planned, but it's here!), because boy are you all gonna be in for quite a show! Believe me people, I worked EXTRA hard on this chapter! And by God I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter after all the hard work I've put into writing and posting the darn thing. You got that? You'd better, you hear me? And that being said, in this long awaited chapter, the epic earthshaking showdown occurs between the Titans and Geo-Force. How will it go down? Who will win? And will Geo-Force be saved? CAN he be saved? Find out, in the epic, grand, earthshaking new chapter of Geo-Force!**

 **A/N: One more obligatory thing to do first. I do not own Teen Titans. Got that? Good. And now, the moment you've all been waiting for . . . ONWARD! WITH! THE! FIC!**

 **Chapter 17:**

 **Terra's Choice**

"Titans go!"

In a flash, all 10 of the Titans, East and otherwise, leapt off in various directions to both avoid having Geo-Force collide into them and prepare themselves for attacking. Terra, meanwhile, performed a series of somersaults before then lunging off behind a nearby small row of stones to stay safe and figure out if there was any way she could safely assist.

For now, though, the official Titans members had it covered. In fact, even as Geo-Force started to work to stop himself in his headlong charge towards the now empty space that his targets had been standing in, Robin, who had managed to take up a new position directly behind the geomancer, proceeded to jump into the air and hurl a trio of disk-like objects at the charging terrakinetic. The disks slammed into the ground literally centimeters behind Geo-Force, the resulting bursts of flame that were explosively released from them sending the geomancer flying forward before he then landed flat on his face and skidded to a halt.

Just as Geo-Force was getting himself back on his feet, he heard running feet behind him, and turned his head to see Cyborg running towards him with his right arm sonic cannon at the ready. Cyborg fired, and Geo-Force hurriedly leaped to his right to avoid getting blasted, and he committed a small series of front flips until he eventually landed behind Cyborg in a position that allowed him to lean in a way that seemingly would allow him to get back on his feet. As it turned out, this leaning maneuver was actually a means of preparing himself for when he went catapulting feet-first towards the partially robotic teen hero. Cyborg had just enough time to turn his head before Geo-Force's feet slammed into his face and sent him flying. The bionic hero crashed into the rocky walls covering up the front of the tower, back-first, and collapsed hard back onto the ground, groaning from the pain of both impacts.

Geo-Force, meanwhile, landed perfectly on his feet, and raised his hand as if about to finish Cyborg off . . . only to then be distracted by a feminine yell coming from nearby. He turned his head in time to see Bumblebee flying down towards him with her stingers at the ready. She fired multiple bursts of small electrical sparks at the geomancer, and he lifted his hands and arms into a blocking position, harmlessly absorbing the brunt of the already ineffective electrical blasts. Then he started spinning around with his arms outstretched to his sides, summoning a tornado of sand around him. Bumblebee stopped firing, leaning back slightly in a mixture of awe and worry at the spectacle. Geo-Force abruptly stopped spinning and snapped his arms forward, sending the entire tornado's worth of sand flying at Bumblebee in a tsunami-shaped blast. The winged metahuman had just enough time for her eyes to widen in shock and to hurriedly attempt to fly away before the sand then engulfed and crashed her down to the ground.

Geo-Force's attention was then attracted by an angry yell from behind him, and he turned his head just in time to see an angry looking Speedy standing nearby with an arrow loaded on his quiver and at the ready to fire. And fire he did, the arrow slamming at Geo-Force's feet and sending him stumbling backwards as a result of the fiery explosion that ensued. Geo-Force didn't even get the chance to regain his footing before he was then set on even more perilous footing by a second explosive fire arrow that Speedy fired at his feet, and then sent flying by a third such arrow that struck him in the chest before crash landing hard on his back. Geo-Force lifted himself up into a seated position, snarled at Speedy, and then jumped in the air, slamming his fist on the ground upon landing and sending a line of stalagmites erupting out of the ground in a straight line towards the archer. Speedy just barely managed to lunge out of the way in time to avoid getting skewered.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"

Geo-Force heard that familiar mantra, and turned around in time to see Raven lift her now shadowy glowing hands before proceeding to send a volley of shadow orbs his way. Geo-Force lifted his hands and arms back into the earlier position he'd placed them in during Bumblebee's onslaught, but this time causing a large rocky wall to rise up in front of him simultaneously. Undeterred by the presence of the summoned barrier, Raven continued to blast at the makeshift shield, forcing Geo-Force to continue to maintain his focus on keeping the barrier raised and present.

But as it turned out, this behavior from Geo-Force was in fact what Raven had been planning all along, for Geo-Force was so focused on shielding himself from Raven's umbrakinetic assault that he never once got any hint of the other attack heading his way until it was too late. When he finally managed to hear the sound of thundering footsteps coming from behind him at a seemingly quite disturbingly close distance, he had just enough time to turn his head and for his eyes to widen at what he saw before he was then pounded against his own summoned shield as a result of Beast Boy the bison slamming his hard head into the geomancer's back and plowing him up against the shield with an emphatic pounding. The jarring double impact caused Geo-Force to effectively lose his concentration, and the barrier collapsed into dust while he was still pressed against it, and he fell flat on his face.

The geomancer was then brought back down to earth when he heard Beast Boy bellowing, and he turned his head just in time to see the green bison rear up on its hind legs, its forelegs raised up and clearly at the ready for it to slam its hooves down on him. Geo-Force hurriedly rolled to his right just in time for the bison's front hooves to slam harmlessly upon the sand in the area where the small of his back had been. The maneuver allowed him to reposition himself so he was lying on his back, and he then hurriedly swung his head to his right, Beast Boy the bison's front hooves slamming emphatically down on the area the geomancer's head had at first been positioned seconds later.

Desperate to keep Beast Boy from making a third attempt, Geo-Force swiped up some sand into his right hand and flung it towards the face of the green bison. The natural design of the bison morph's head, combined with Beast Boy quickly closing his eyes, proved more than enough to prevent any sand from getting in his eyes, but the action combined with the uncomfortable feeling of the sand's presence was enough to distract Beast Boy just long enough for him to turn to face the area to his left while also shaking his head and body to get the sand off of him. But the small delay was enough for Geo-Force to turn the tide, and he jumped backwards back onto his feet, summoned a small boulder with a stomp of his right foot, and then kicked it at Beast Boy with a powerful stomp kick produced with the exact same foot. The boulder crashed into Beast Boy from the side and sent the green bison rocketing off to the side, bellowing in shock and pain, and it crash landed hard and skidded to a stop a couple inches away from the tide boundary to his left.

Geo-Force was just about to prepare himself for summoning another attack when he heard another feminine shriek coming from his left. He had just enough time to swiftly turn his head to face that direction before Starfire slammed into him and pushed him emphatically up against the rocky walls covering up the front of the tower, the area of impact even going so far as to develop an impressive ring of cracks as a result of the force with which Geo-Force had slammed against it.

Starfire hovered back, and then opened fire at his face with her laser vision. Geo-Force hurriedly leaned his head left, then right, and then ducked straight down to avoid getting his face fried by the Tamaranean's eye beams. The instant Geo-Force straightened back up, he swung his head upward, causing a geyser of sand to erupt right in front of Starfire. The Tamaranean reared backward, closing her eyes to avoid getting sand in her eyes. It was only through pure instinct that she was able to tell exactly when the sand geyser was gone and she could open her eyes again. But when she finally opened her eyes back up, she had just enough time to see Geo-Force's right fist zooming right towards her before it pounded into her face and sent her flying backward.

Geo-Force had just leaned forward as if to rush towards Starfire and continue his assault when Robin abruptly leaped up onto the geomancer's back from seemingly out of nowhere, drew out his bo staff, and positioned himself so that he was pressing the cold hard metal pole across the metahuman's neck. For a few minutes, Robin continued to subject the now thrashing and growling Geo-Force to the makeshift garrote, furious at what had just happened to Starfire, but still being careful to make sure that he would only strangle Geo-Force sufficiently enough to knock him out and avoid killing him.

Then Geo-Force abruptly leaned forward, propelling Robin forward just enough for his cape to billow up and fall over his head. Robin involuntarily loosened the makeshift garrote, and Geo-Force promptly grabbed onto the tip of Robin's cape and yanked on it, sending Robin flying off of the geomancer's back and colliding right into Speedy, sending the two former sidekicks sprawling. Geo-Force lifted up his right foot, preparing to stomp it down and summon a seismic shock wave, only to then have his left leg swept out from under him and crash land on his back as a result of a blink-and-you'll-miss it level fast red blur slamming into said leg.

Geo-Force had just enough time to lift up his head before it was then sent pounding back on the ground again as a result of the red blur returning and, quite literally, running him over. He never even got the chance to catch his breath and try to lift his head again before the same blur continued to run him over multiple times again and again, clearly running in circles around the tower. Eventually, in spite of the pain and discomfort coming from his seemingly never ending chain of getting run over by the twin speedsters, Geo-Force lifted up his arms, palms positioned so that they'd slam on the ground when he lowered his arms, and smacked them down, causing four small walls of stone to rise around him in a topless box-like format. All of one second passed the rising of the four barriers before Geo-Force heard a pounding noise coming from the barrier in front of his feet and heard Mas and Menos yell 'oy' in pain and shock. Geo-Force grinned, lowered the four barriers with a snap of his fingers, and then leaped back up onto his feet to face the downed twin speedsters, lifting up his right fist simultaneously to summon another attack.

But then Geo-Force was sent sprawling onto his face when a blast of water crashed into him from behind. Geo-Force, got up on his hands and knees, coughing and sputtering from the impact, and then turned his head just in time to see Aqualad standing nearby. The geomancer growled, got back on his feet, and sent a cannonball sized glob of mud flying towards the Atlantean. Aqualad calmly summoned a wall of water in front of him; and at the exact same time that the glob of mud struck the water wall and caused it to transform into muddy water, he sent it hurtling straight at Geo-Force in the form of a miniature land-based tidal wave. Geo-Force had just enough time for his eyes to widen at the sight of his own trick he'd already used twice on Aqualad being used in reverse order against him before the muddy wave slammed into him and sent him sprawling even further away from Aqualad then he'd already been, and leaving him covered in mud to top it all off. Geo-Force got back up on his feet and wiped his face free of the mud, coughing and spitting out mud.

"Not so fun when you're the one getting muddy, now is it?"

Geo-Force snapped around to face Aqualad, growling angrily at the smug comment from the Atlantean. But then his attention was switched in a different direction when he heard two voices simultaneously yell, "AND NOW IT'S TIME TO CHILL OUT!"

He turned his head just in time to see Robin standing to his left and Speedy standing right behind him, with a blue and gray disk and three arrows (respectively) at the ready. Geo-Force snarled, and prepared himself to attack, only to then involuntarily throw his arms up in the air as a result of getting engulfed in a forceful spout of water that erupted from right underneath him. Speedy and Robin simultaneously launched their own attacks, and they crashed into the geyser and exploded into massive bursts of icy mist, freezing the water spout solid. By the time the icy mist had cleared away, Geo-Force was revealed to be completely frozen solid and encased in a pillar of ice. Speedy couldn't help but smirk at the sight. "Boy this would make a perfect image for our Christmas cards," he thought to himself.

Then the three boys' had their attention drawn back to the battle at hand when they heard an angry human growling and saw what appeared to be cracks appearing in the ice around the area where Geo-Force's left arm was positioned. Then Geo-Force's left arm abruptly burst free from the ice, with its clenched fist slamming against the remaining ice as a result of the downward swing the arm had unleashed upon bursting free. The fist struck the ice with such force that the entire remainder of the icy pillar became encased in cracks, and then explosively shattered. The three boys ducked and covered themselves to avoid potentially getting hit by the shards of ice, and by the time they straightened back up Geo-Force had proceeded to jump up in the air with his fists raised. When he landed, both of his fists pounded onto the ground, summoning a powerful seismic shockwave that sent all three of the teen boy heroes who'd frozen him flying backwards in their respective directions. Robin landed flat on his back on the sand behind him, whereas Aqualad and Speedy both landed in the water on their respective sides.

Robin managed to lift his head off the ground in time to see Geo-Force lift his left fist as if about to send another attack in Robin's direction. But then Mas and Menos seemed to just randomly materialize in front of Robin from out of nowhere and they started rapidly moving their feet so fast that they caused large bursts of sand to go flying towards Geo-Force.

Unfortunately, this same tactic that would have likely proven quite effective against the majority of the villains and criminals they'd faced before this encounter proved not entirely the wisest choice of moves to use against Geo-Force, as he merely extended his left hand towards the sand bursts with an almost bored look of disbelief on his face, and the sandy attack halted in midair. For another few seconds, Geo-Force kept the sand frozen in midair and continued staring at both the sand and the twin speedsters responsible for trying to attack him with it with a facial expression that clearly said 'seriously?'

Mas and Menos gulped in unison. "Oh diablos," said Mas.

"Yah!" Geo-Force screamed as he rapidly swung his left arm upwards, sending both the sand that had originally been flung at him as well as a great deal more sand rushing right back at the twin speedsters in a tidal wave of sand. Mas and Menos had just enough time to close their eyes and hug each other in a way that allowed them to brace for impact before the wave of sand plowed into them and sent them hurtling right towards Robin. The Boy Wonder hurriedly fired his grappling hook at a nearby stalagmite, thus allowing himself to be yanked out of the way just in time, and the twin speedsters ended up landing right in the water that had been behind the teen caped crusader.

Geo-Force leaned forward, narrowing his eyes as he watched to see if Mas and Menos resurfaced from the water, and then noticed a flash of what looked like shadowy energy hurtling towards him from the right out of the corner of his eye. He turned around, simultaneously summoning an earthen barrier, which harmlessly absorbed the force of the shadowy lightning bolt that Raven had sent his way. The geomancer summoned a stalagmite spear and positioned it so that it was ready to be sent hurtling in Raven's direction . . . only for the projectile to then be blasted to dust by a distinctive blue laser. Geo-Force turned his head in time to see Cyborg fire a second laser straight at him. The geomancer blocked the blast with another summoned shield, then he lowered it, lifting his hands in preparation for summoning another attack, and then got sent flying off to the side when a distinctive orb of what looked like emerald green flames struck him from his left.

Geo-Force went sprawling, and he hurriedly got back on his feet and turned around in time to see Raven, Cyborg, and Starfire heading towards him while charging up attacks. Geo-Force hurriedly prepared himself just as the three charging Titans fired their respective attacks at him. Geo-Force summoned another earth barrier, and thus successfully shielded himself from the jet of shadow fire, sonic laser, and volley of star bolts that were sent his way. He lowered his shield just in time to see Cyborg right in front of him with his fist drawn back.

Geo-Force was sent flying backward by Cyborg's powerful punch connecting right with his face, and he came to a hard landing. Geo-Force managed to get back on his feet, panting and gasping. But then Raven appeared right behind him from out of a swirling vortex of shadows, and she summoned a ring of shadow orbs around herself that she then caused to explode, sending Geo-Force rocketing up into the air where Starfire was waiting. With a guttural roar of rage, Starfire fired a laser blast from her eyes, and the beam struck Geo-Force in the chest, sending the geomancer rocketing back down to the ground, where he landed with an emphatic pounding noise that left cracks underneath him and caused a cloud of dust to explosively rise up and around him. Terra, still watching from her hiding place, couldn't help but wince at the sight. Even though she knew that the Titans were actively working to try not to hurt him too badly, she still couldn't help but find it a little hard to watch in regard to just how rough the Titans were still managing to be in their fight against her now almost certainly mind controlled elder brother.

Geo-Force managed to open his eyes after the dust cleared, only to then see Cyborg in the air jumping towards him with his fist raised. Geo-Force hurriedly did a backflip maneuver, his feet pressing against Cyborg's chest, and then sent the partially robotic teen hero flying forward. And to add insult to injury, he ended up colliding into Robin, who had just at that moment been rushing towards Geo-Force himself, and the two teen heroes went sprawling.

Geo-Force leaped back onto his feet, and then snapped his left arm in that very same direction in time to grab Raven (who had been gliding down towards him) by the cowl of her cloak, before then throwing her to his right and causing her to collide with Starfire, who had been diving towards the geomancer from the side opposite Raven. But then Geo-Force once again had the tide turned against him when, just as he'd raised up both of his fists in preparation for an attack, he was sent flying off to the side by Beast Boy pouncing on him in the form of a muscular green tiger.

Geo-Force landed on his back, Beast Boy the tiger standing firmly over him. The beast snarled, now in a blind rage over what had happened to Raven, and then dove his head down towards Geo-Force without thinking in an attempt to bite his throat. Geo-Force hurriedly moved his head to his left just barely in time, and the green tiger got a mouthful of sand. As Beast Boy proceeded to spit out mass bursts of sand, coughing and hissing in disgust and discomfort, Geo-Force partially lifted himself back up, drew back his right arm, and then punched the two-toned green striped jungle cat in the face, sending it hurtling off to the side with a snarl of shock and pain. And in what could only qualify as sheer rotten luck, the shape shifter hurtled straight towards an area where Raven had literally just teleported to, and she too was sent flying when Beast Boy the tiger slammed right into her.

Geo-Force leaned forwards, preparing to charge straight towards the chromatically challenged duo . . . and then felt the distinctive feeling of a blast of electricity strike him on the back of his head. The geomancer straightened up and turned his head to face the direction the blast had come from . . . only for his eyes to widen in shock at the sight of Bumblebee rapidly descending towards him with her right fist drawn back. With a swing of her fist, Bumblebee throttled Geo-Force in the jaw, and the geomancer went rocketing backwards.

Geo-Force got himself into a seated position, and then hurriedly jumped further back at the sight of Bumblebee lunging towards him, incidentally straightening himself fully back up on his feet. Bumblebee landed with her knees bent at the area where Geo-Force had been, slamming both her stingers on the ground at the same time. Thus Geo-Force managed to avoid both getting pounded by the stingers and getting caught in the small ground-based web of electricity that was released by the impact of the stingers against the ground. Undeterred, Bumblebee jumped towards Geo-Force again, positioning herself to deliver a flying kick to his face.

But Geo-Force was ready, and he grabbed Bumblebee by the ankle just as her foot was inches away from colliding with his face. He swung her upwards, eliciting a surprised shriek from the winged fearless leader of Titans East, and then slammed her face down on the ground to his left. Then he repeated the movement in the opposite direction, then slammed her to the left, then the right, then the left, then the right, then the left. Geo-Force then lifted Bumblebee up again and spun her around in circles a few times before then letting go at a position that sent her rocketing upwards straight towards the rocky walls covering up the front of the tower. The winged metahuman painfully collided with the rocky covering. And unlike Cyborg, she hit the wall face-first. She collapsed back down on the ground, groaning in pain with her eyes closed, and her stingers now just lying around in her completely opened hands.

Geo-Force had just enough time to direct a smug smirk at the downed leader of Titans East before he heard an angry yell coming from his right. He turned around just in time for none other than Cyborg to plow into him. Within seconds, the 19-year old half robot and 21 or so year old geomancer went tumbling around on the ground as if in a wrestling match. By the time they managed to roll back onto their own two feet, they were still ready to duke it out. Cyborg eagerly obliged with the opportunity, sending a missile flying from his left arm at Geo-Force. Geo-Force summoned an earth barrier, and the missile harmlessly crashed into it. The geomancer lowered his shield, and positioned himself as if about to trigger an attack by stomping his foot. But then he paused, noticing that Cyborg had now positioned himself as if clearly preparing himself for whatever attack happened to get triggered by the current trigger motion that appeared to have been planned. So the geomancer instead swung his left arm upwards in an arc, causing a geyser of mud to spout up into Cyborg's face. Cyborg spent all of five seconds coughing and gagging from the mud, before he then felt wind displacement coming from right above his head and heard something land right behind him. He hurriedly wiped the mud from his face and turned to face the area behind him, only to then be sent flying backward as a result of Geo-Force flat out walloping him in the face with a swift, yet painfully strong, punch. That exact same moment just happened to turn out to be the moment that Aqualad had finally gotten out of the water and started running back towards the battle; and thus he ended up getting sent flying right back into the water alongside Cyborg when the half robot plowed into him. And this time, the distance from the tower at which the landing occurred was almost three times larger than it had been when Aqualad had first been knocked into the water.

At the sound of a reptilian mixture between a roar and a hiss, Geo-Force turned his head just in time to see none other than Beast Boy in the form of a crocodile rocketing through the air straight towards him while both encased in shadowy energy and with his jaws open. Geo-Force hurriedly grabbed the crocodile by the jaws, one hand each gripping one half, just as the changeling was inches away from snapping him up, and he swung the reptile around in circles before then sending him spinning through the air straight towards Speedy, who had himself just come a few footsteps away from properly rejoining the battle. At the sight of Beast Boy the croc hurtling towards him, Speedy had just enough time to wince, lean back slightly as if tensing up, and say, "Oh come on," before the changeling proceeded to crash into him, and they both went flying into the water at the exact same distance from the tower as the one where Cyborg and Aqualad had landed, albeit in a different direction.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"

Geo-Force turned his head away from where Speedy and Beast Boy had gone flying just in time to see Raven hurl a gigantic meteor of shadow energy towards him. The orb of darkness slammed into the geomancer and sent him flying backwards, crashing back-first into the rocky covering of the front of the tower. Geo-Force crash landed back on the ground, got back up with rage in his eyes, and lifted up his hands as if to summon an attack . . . and then got sent stumbling forwards by a beam of green energy striking him in the back. Geo-Force managed to avoid losing his footing, and he turned around to face Starfire. The two combatants squared off, both of them with their eyes glowing, they were ready for action.

"Hey rock head!"

Geo-Force turned his head in time to see Robin standing behind him with an armload of birdirangs at the ready. "Eat this!" He started rapidly hurling the projectiles at Geo-Force. The geomancer hurriedly summoned an earth barrier, and all the birdirangs became harmlessly embedded within the shield. Geo-Force smirked as he got sight of the small portions that had made it through the shield and were now poking out through the side he was directly standing in front of. But as it turned out, Robin had been planning on Geo-Force summoning a shield, because then every single one of the birdirangs that had just now gotten embedded within the shield started blinking and beeping. Then, as one, they all exploded, blasting the shield to smithereens and hurling Geo-Force back.

Robin had already started running head on towards Geo-Force by the time the geomancer had landed. But the geomancer recovered quickly, jumped back up to his feet, and then proceeded to stomp his left foot on the ground; at which point he then stomp kicked the small earthen projectile that popped out of the ground as a result of said stomp straight towards the Boy Wonder. Robin, running too fast to stop or dodge, had just enough time for his masked eyes to widen in shock before the projectile plowed right into his chest and sent him rocketing quite a few yards away into the ocean water behind him.

Starfire's eyes widened, her attention focused solely now on where the Boy Wonder had landed. "Robin!" Then she herself shrieked in shock as she felt something wrap around her ankles and yank her down to the ground, slam her from side to side and then hurl her at rocket speed off to her right, causing her to crash into Bumblebee and send both herself and the fearless leader of Titans East crashing into the water at around the same area where Cyborg and Aqualad had just recently landed. Geo-Force snarled contemptuously at the sight, and then dismissed the tendril of dust that he'd just used to take out Starfire.

"Azarath, Metrion . . ."

Geo-Force rapidly turned to face the area directly in front of him and sent a glob of mud hurtling towards Raven. The mud glob splashed across Raven's mouth right as she was on the verge of yelling 'Zinthos' and then instantly solidified, effectively sealing her mouth shut.

"HHHHHHHMMMMMMMPPPPPPPHHHHHHH!" Raven shrieked, her eyes widened in shock as she instinctively reached up with her hands and tugged at the dried up and practically rock solid mud across her mouth in an effort to remove her makeshift gag. Then Geo-Force grabbed her by the front collar of her leotard and yanked her off to his left, eliciting a surprised muffled shriek from the teenage sorceress. Even after Geo-Force let her go, Raven was left quite disoriented and out of touch just long enough for Geo-Force to then do a backflip, kicking her in the back in the process and sending her rocketing off into the water around the same area where Speedy and Beast Boy had landed, a muffled howl of pain and shock blaring from her sealed mouth the entire way.

Geo-Force breathed heavily for a few seconds, and then turned his head to look behind him at the sound of rushing water coming from that direction. The geomancer's eyes widened at the sight of a respectable flood of ocean water rushing straight towards him. The water plowed into Geo-Force and completely consumed him, sending him floating around helplessly within before he was finally released and dropped unceremoniously upon the ground when the water finally released him and receded.

The geomancer was allowed only seconds of reprieve in which he got on his hands and knees and coughed and sputtered out water before he then heard the sound of a massively strong gust of wind, and he turned his head in time to see what looked like a blurry red tornado heading his way from the exact same direction as the water. The tornado reached the geomancer's position and sucked him up, letting him billow and swirl around inside while unexpectedly proceeding to grow taller and taller. Then Geo-Force was abruptly sent rocketing out of tornado and hurtling over the tower and into the water behind it. The tornado shrunk and vanished, revealing itself to be Mas and Menos. The two twin speedsters chuckled, grinning triumphantly, and gave each other a fist pump.

"Nice work guys."

The two twins turned their heads in time to see that Aqualad was now standing nearby, having finally managed to come back out of the water once more. The Atlantean nodded his head in a clear gesture of approval. "I'm sure Bumblebee will be proud." The twins giggled in agreement.

Terra, meanwhile, felt a small smile coming onto her own face. She had to admit, her friends had done a pretty good job. Granted, she was now feeling a tiny bit worried about just what sort of condition her brother was now in, but she was still confident nonetheless that he'd still be capable of being found and saved.

Then the ground started shaking, and the three Titan boys that weren't currently taking an unwilling dip in the bay found themselves working carefully to maintain their footing. "Be on your guard," Aqualad stated. "He should show up at any moment, and could likely pop up just about anywhere." The two 10-year olds nodded in agreement, their faces clearly showing fear yet also determination.

Then Geo-Force unexpectedly burst up from the ground behind the two speedsters, and came to an emphatic landing in a stereotypical 3-point 'superhero landing' style. Eyes widened, Mas and Menos hurriedly reached to lock hands, but Geo-Force snapped his right arm forwards, and the twin speedsters screamed in fright as they proceeded to get grabbed by the legs by dust tendrils and yanked away in opposite directions before then getting emphatically slammed back down on the ground, at which point the dust tendrils vanished and domes of stone materialized around them, effectively trapping them.

Aqualad noticed this, and then looked back at Geo-Force angrily. "Hey!"

No sooner had Aqualad shouted this when he was abruptly sent flying backward by a jet of mud that Geo-Force sent spouting from his right palm. Aqualad came to a hard landing and bounced thrice across the ground before coming to a screeching halt.

Geo-Force growled, and prepared himself to lunge towards the downed Atlantean before then heard a high pitched shriek coming from behind and slightly above him. The geomancer turned his head just in time to see Beast Boy rocketing down towards him as a peregrine falcon before abruptly transforming into a lion in midair and roaring at him. Geo-Force summoned a floating rock from under his feet and hurriedly propelled himself into the air, and the green lion landed harmlessly on the ground where the geomancer had been standing. The changeling reared his head up to face the airborne geomancer, roaring angrily in challenge. But then Geo-Force summoned a massive meteor-shower's worth of boulders in midair and sent them all rocketing down towards Beast Boy. The green lion had just enough time for its eyes to widen, let out a surprised feline hissing, and curl up defensively before it disappeared from view in a cloud of dust brought up by the rapidly landing and crashing boulders. When the dust cleared from the avalanche, a massive pile of boulders was revealed in the area where Beast Boy had been standing. Terra's eyes widened at the sight, and she instantly found herself sending a silent pray for Beast Boy to be safe.

At the sound of groaning coming from Aqualad's direction, Terra turned her head, her eyes widened once more, but this time out of concern for Aqualad, who she could now see very weakly trying to get himself back up on his feet. Unfortunately, Geo-Force's attention had also been attracted by the sound of the groaning Atlantean. With a flick of his wrist, the geomancer proceeded to summon both a mass pool of mud directly at the area Aqualad's head was hovering over, and a long arm and hand made from dust that rose out of the ground to the Atlantean's left. And then, much to Terra's horror, the hand of dust latched onto the back of Aqualad's neck and pushed him down so that his head became submerged in mud, and then proceeded to hold him in position as the Atlantean started to thrash and writhe and cough and howl.

As this happened, Terra found herself tensing up both physically and mentally, struggling to both keep herself from crying from fear and despair at the sight of what was currently happening to Aqualad as well as what had already happened to all his teammates beforehand, and at the same time decide whether or not to stay in hiding where she currently was or come out of her hiding place and try to intervene herself. "What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?" she furiously, yet at the same time despairingly, thought to herself.

Then Geo-Force lifted his hand and caused the arm of dust to momentarily lift Aqualad's head clear of the mud, and the Atlantean gasped and coughed. "I had a feeling you'd make this difficult," Geo-Force growled. Then he had Aqualad's head dunked back under the mud for a brief minute, and had him yanked free again. "But even so, I never thought that you'd turn out to be _this_ much of an annoyance." The geomancer repeated his earlier tactic of dunking and withdrawing, but this time with a slightly longer period of time occurring between the dunking and withdrawal. "In fact," Geo-Force then said while Aqualad was still gasping for air as a result of his head being withdrawn from the suffocating mud for the second time, "I can now safely admit that you, and all your Titan friends, and even my own traitorous sister, have now proven such a big, freaking, pain in the ass by now that I'm sure even my master will be surprised at just how much trouble you've all turned out to be."

Geo-Force dunked Aqualad's head back into the mud once again, and this time he had the arm of dust keep the Atlantean's head submerged for about 5 minutes straight before finally allowing Aqualad to once again be spared from drowning, or even losing consciousness. And even in spite of once again being withdrawn from the mud in time to avoid drowning or losing consciousness, Aqualad was very noticeably starting to sound weaker and more exhausted in his gasping and wheezing. Terra's heart sank, and her face began to very clearly show how desperately she was now fighting to avoid completely breaking down and losing it, complete with quivering lips, a heartbroken look of despair in her eyes, and moisture starting to rapidly build up in those very same eyes. "No," she thought to herself. "No."

Geo-Force then tensed himself up, leaning his head downwards with his eyes closed, clearly now fighting to keep himself from flat out exploding in pure unadulterated bestial rage. The geomancer looked back up, his eyes open, and his teeth gritted. He lifted up his hand, index finger raised, clearly fighting to avoid flat out shouting inarticulately with rage. Then the geomancer finally managed to point his raised index finger at the Atlantean. "And that being said," growled Geo-Force. "I honestly don't care anymore what my master wants with you and your teammates, let alone what he'll say when he finds out tomorrow, but I have had enough of you causing headaches for me and my master, I am sick of having to go through so much trouble to try to capture you alive, and I am done with holding back against you."

The geomancer then lifted up his left hand, now clenched into a fist, and in that instant, time seemed to just stop for Terra. And as she gaped at the scene in a mixture of horror, shock, and despair, she realized just how far south things had now headed. Aqualad was on his last legs, and practically seconds away from being killed in cold blood by the same person who'd at first been willing to go to any length to make sure to capture him alive. Beast Boy was out of commission; and possibly already dead. Mas and Menos were also out of commission, and in no position to get themselves back in the game without help. And every single one of the other active Titans were still currently unaccounted for. And she actually now found it even more worrisome that she still didn't know what was currently happening to the other Titans that still hadn't come out of the water or why they were taking so long to come back out of the water and rejoin the fight in the event that they even still could.

In that moment, she realized that there was only one thing that could be done that would allow for even the tiniest chance of turning things around back in her favor. "It's all up to me now," she thought to herself in a mixture of fear and awe. "I'm the only who can intervene now. I'm gonna have to stop Geo-Force myself and somehow fight him off. But how?"

In that moment, Aqualad briefly managed to direct a sidelong glance towards Terra out of the corner of his eyes, and upon sight of the look that was on her face, began silently praying that she wasn't thinking about what he had a very bad feeling she was currently thinking about.

Geo-Force noticed this, and briefly directed a sidelong glance of his own in the direction Aqualad was looking, and his very tense and angry look morphed into a smug wolf-like grin as he managed to connect the dots. "I see my sister is watching. Good, I say she deserves to be treated to a little show before she dies." The geomancer briefly looked in the direction of the massive heap of boulders standing upon the area where Beast Boy had been. "And since the animal's already been taken out of the equation, I guess you'll have to do."

Geo-Force looked back at Aqualad, and his grin widened, his eyes now taking on a malicious gleam as something else crossed his mind. "But now that I think about it," said the geomancer. "Perhaps it is better that you be the one that gets treated to a long, cruel, drawn out death before her very eyes. At least after all that's currently gone down. Because from what I've seen and managed to learn, history or no history, the animal's moved on, and he doesn't feel the way he used to feel towards my sister. And neither does she for him." He pointed at the Atlantean, grin and bright-eyed gleam still on his face. "But you . . . I've seen that look you have on your face right now before. In fact, I've seen it time and time again on my own brother. Why's that important, you might ask? That look on your face that I've seen before on my brother? I've seen it, and many differing variations of it in regard to different emotional and circumstantial contexts, on his face so many times. But the one element that all those different moments have in common? They've all involved someone that I know, for a fact, that my brother loves."

Geo-Force's grin widened. "And no, I don't mean just any kind of love. I'm not talking about the generic feeling of mutual liking between friends. I'm not talking about familial love. I'm not talking about the innocent, not entirely well grounded, love that commonly sprouts up among children. No. I'm talking about _love_. . .," his grin widened even further, "with a capital L."

The geomancer chuckled, rubbing the back of his head with his left hand. "I remember this girl of a reportedly quite noble family from some neighboring city or country or whatever around Gregor's age. Vibrant red hair, crystal blue eyes, not really my type but still quite gorgeous when you think about it. Ilona I think her name was? Oh that doesn't matter." He directed his attention entirely back to Aqualad. "The point is, I've seen them together, and how they interact. You wanna know something really interesting? As much of a prick my brother is and how much of a heartless monster my mother has proven so intent on crafting him into being, I can truthfully admit without any doubt that in every single second he's ever spent with Ilona, only then has he ever behaved and truly seemed at all like a genuine decent human being. And not only that, but I can tell from their body language, their behavior, the way they speak, and especially from the looks on their faces whenever they're in each other's presence, that they are 100%, clear as day, in love."

Geo-Force chuckled, shook his head side to side. "And to be honest, even I know that all that stuff I just told you isn't sufficient explanation for why it has anything to do with you, my sister, or anything else regarding the current situation. But now, I can safely that I'm done with mucking around and beating around the bush. I'm gonna be straight with you now." The geomancer leaned forward, smug look of triumph still on his face. "Like I already said, that same look I've seen on my brother's face time and time again in varying emotional forms, is the one I'm now seeing on your face, and from just one look, even an imbecile can tell that my sister is the subject of this look. You get what I'm saying?"

Geo-Force's grin widened even further, if that was even possible. And then, seconds later, Aqualad's eyes widened as he finally realized just what the geomancer was trying to tell him. "You . . . you're saying that I . . ." he briefly turned his head to look directly at Terra, then back at Geo-Force. "That's impossible!"

"Oh," Geo-Force purred in mock hurt. "You're calling me a liar? Please, you wound me; and that's being optimistic considering the damage that you may very have well just dealt or could even now still be inflicting upon my poor sister's fragile little heart."

"What are you talking about!?" Aqualad practically shouted. "I don't feel that way about Terra, and she sure as Neptune doesn't feel that way towards me!"

"Oh come on," said Geo-Force. "Do you really expect me to believe that? Come on, use your brain. Think. Truly consider how you feel in regard to my sister; compare that to how you think and feel about all your teammates, or better yet, in regard to how you felt about your dear darling old friends Kaldur and Tula!"

Aqualad gasped in stunned shock, the geomancer's words almost like a punch to the gut. "How . . . how did you know about that?!"

"Never mind how I know about that!" Geo-Force shouted. "Think about all that, and compare it to how you feel in regard to my sister! And I mean think about it! Carefully consider it! And answer me this, and do be honest with me, have you truly never before felt the way you currently feel about my sister? Is there absolutely no other person in your life who's ever inspired you to feel the way my sister's gotten you to feel?"

In that instant, Aqualad's eyes widened, clarity showing in his eyes. "You're . . . you're right," said the Atlantean. "I do recognize it now. You've reminded me now. There is someone I've felt this way about before."

"I knew it," said Geo-Force. "Who?"

Aqualad gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and hung his head, clearly struggling on whether or not to keep silent or give a direct answer.

Geo-Force chuckled, and leaned his head further towards the Atlantean. "Say it," he purred. "Say her name."

Aqualad sighed resignedly, and looked back up at Geo-Force. "Tula."

Terra's eyes widened, silently gasping at the revelation. "He . . . he really . . . thinks of me . . . that way?" she thought to herself, half in shock and half in joy. Then she briefly thought to herself in confusion, "Why am I partially joyous about that?"

"But even so," said Aqualad. "It doesn't matter, because I know your sister doesn't feel that way towards me. She never has. She's always had her eyes on Beast Boy."

"Oh please," said Geo-Force. "You really sure about that?" Chuckling, he straightened back up, his hands on his hips as if expecting a medal. "Sure, maybe she did once feel that way about that animal that I've now got summarily crushed up under my little victory pyramid. But like I said earlier in this little talk, she's moved on since then . . . and developed less of a taste in green pastures and more in fresh fish." He pointed at Terra. "I saw how she's reacted over the course of this entire encounter, but here's the part that actually matters in the current context. Did you see at all how she reacted to the demise of the animal?"

Aqualad growled in a mixture of irritation and exhaustion, both from having not seen that and from not being in the mood for games. "She _saw_ him get crushed and buried under that avalanche, and aside from obvious wide eyes, she barely so much as batted an eye, and she sure didn't shed any tears."

"Well she was to shocked to react in any other way," Aqualad countered. "She had only seconds to react to that before . . ."

"That didn't stop her from reacting almost instantaneously the way she did to the sight of me starting to drown you." Geo-Force pointed back at Terra again. "Almost a full minute passed that filthy vermin's extermination without her showing any reaction aside from wide-eyed shock. But you . . . all of three seconds passed my starting to drown you before her shock turned to a very, very, _very_ different reaction. I saw it clear as the nose on my face. She was practically seconds, _seconds_ , away from bursting out crying her eyes out in despair. And she reacted in this matter, literally _seconds_ after I'd literally _just_ had your head forced down under that mud I've got your head hovering over."

Geo-Force leaned his head forward once more. "And you know who else I've seen that kind of look on in a similar context? Ilona. And this happened two years ago, when she was trying to force her way into the operating room to check on Gregor when he ended up suffering severe injuries from a foiled assassination attempt on him and my father. She loves him _that_ much. And the look that was on her face in that moment," he pointed back at Terra, "was right there on my sister's face. Whatever you or her might say to deny it, you can't keep the truth buried. Especially when it's already clear as day. You've fallen for her hard, head over fins. And like an avalanche, she's managed to fall just as hard for you." His grin widened. "And under other circumstances, I'd be quite pleased, not to mention earthshakingly proud, of my sister for managing to catch the eye of and fall for someone like you."

At that point, Terra was barely even listening, almost completely withdrawn into her own dazed little world. "Is this really true?" she thought to herself. "Do I really feel that way towards Aq . . . towards Garth?" She turned her head towards the mountain of boulders that Beast Boy was buried under. "I always thought that I loved Beast Boy . . . but the way I feel towards Garth . . . it's different . . . I know that it's not the same . . . it's . . . actually . . . stronger . . ." her eyes widened in stunned shock. "My God," she thought to herself. "He's telling the truth. My brother's right."

"And that being said," said Geo-Force, "It shall now be all the more heartbreaking for my sister when she watches you die." He tensed up his right arm, "Because as of now, I'm done messing around. It's time for you to die." He snapped his right arm forward, and the dust arm pushed Aqualad's head back under the mud. In a flash, Aqualad once again started unleashing his agonized shrieks and howls from drowning in the mud, but this time he sounded even louder and more frantic.

In that instant, Terra snapped out of her dazed stupor. "No," she thought to herself as she watched with shock and horror. But then her eyes narrowed, and she felt a pure boiling raging anger erupt in her. "No," she thought to herself again, but this time in a considerably angrier mental tone. Without even thinking, she clenched both her hands around the large stalagmite she was hiding directly behind and pulled on it so hard that it unexpectedly snapped off from its roots. Not even realizing the unbelievable feet of strength she'd just performed, Terra drew back her right arm, the uprooted stalagmite tight in her grip and ready to be thrown, but with the blunt end facing Geo-Force's direction while the pointy end pointed in the direction of the water behind her. "NO!" Terra roared out loud before she then hurled the makeshift projectile towards her brother. Geo-Force had just enough time for his eyes to widen and to turn his head in the direction of his sister before the blunt end of the uprooted stalagmite slammed into his face and sent him stumbling backwards before falling flat on his back. As a direct result of all this, the geomancer completely lost his focus, and the dust arm holding Aqualad's head under the mud exploded into dust particles. Aqualad's head burst out of the mud, which evaporated into harmless brown mist afterward, and the Atlantean gasped several times for air and in relief.

Both Aqualad and Geo-Force had their attention drawn back to Terra when they heard her yell, "Hey Sand Brain!" Both the Atlantean and the Markovian looked over at Terra, who had stepped out from her hiding place behind the row of stalagmites and was now starting to walk calmly yet briskly towards her downed brother.

Aqualad got back up to his feet, a clearly concerned and worried look on his face. "No, no, no," he thought to himself as he extended his hand towards Terra in an effort to signal for her to stay back. As thankful as he was for Terra having managed to save his life, he still wanted more than anything to prevent her from getting hurt, or possibly even killed.

Terra came to a stop, glaring icily towards her brother. "You think that you can just go ahead and throw your wait around and torture and play with people like that just because you've got the power and ability to do so!?"

Geo-Force didn't respond, too dumbfounded by how his sister was now behaving to properly think up any words.

Terra growled, clenched her fists, and then snarled, "You think that just because your Master's so powerful and I turned down your offer to willingly submit myself to the same control he's forced upon you means that you have the right to just thrash my friends around and kill them before my very eyes before taking me out? Or better yet, that you'd be able to get away with it without being punished in any way, shape, or form?!"

Geo-Force still didn't say anything, but his mind was now struggling to try to think up something to say in spite of how the majority of his mind was still stuck in a dazed stunned blue screen of stunned speechlessness.

Terra growled again, narrowed her eyes further, and tensed her entire body up before lifting up her right foot. "Well it ends now!" She stomped her foot down hard; and then a small, but still quite respectable, tremor unfolded upon the island.

For a brief moment, Aqualad found himself struggling to avoid losing his footing, and Geo-Force found himself uncomfortably vibrating from the effects of the tremor. "Curse my seismic abilities . . ." he started to think to himself, before he then realized something big that caused his eyes to widen in shock from the revelation. "Wait a minute," he thought to himself. "I didn't cause that."

Aqualad soon came to that same realization, and his eyes widened. "Geo-Force didn't cause that . . . he barely even moved just now. But if he didn't do it then . . ." his eyes widened again, and he turned his head to look towards the still very angry Terra, who quite surprisingly didn't even seem to have noticed the tremor that had just occurred. "Can it be?" he thought to himself.

Terra snarled, her teeth gritted in a feral snarl, and lifted her right foot up once again. She stomped it back down, simultaneously yelling, "I am done with hiding helplessly on the sidelines." And as if to further hint at what Aqualad had already started to suspect, a second small, but this time slightly stronger, tremor unfolded immediately after Terra stomped her foot. She repeated the motion, and a third tremor unfolded. "I am done with watching my friends get hurt because of me!" She stomped her foot a fourth time, and a fourth tremor unfolded. "I am done with letting negativity rule my life!"

Terra lifted up her right foot once more, this time with an almost murderous look of rage on her face, and her eyes now starting to look a dangerously lighter shade of blue, almost as if they were about to take on a very familiar alternate form. "And mind controlled or not, I will not, and I mean _will not_ accept any negativity thrust upon me by my own brother! Or anyone else, or anything else! Never again! Never you hear me! Never I say! Never!" She stomped her right foot down hard, harder then she'd stomped the previous four times. And this time, the instant her foot touched the ground, a full scale earthquake ensued.

. . . . .

This time, Terra finally realized just what was happening; though admittedly, this time the tremor was so powerful that it was quite frankly impossible to not notice. At first Terra was confused. "What the heck? How on Earth?" Then her eyes widened in shock. "Did I . . .?" Then the full import of what was happening reached her, and her shock turned to fear. "My powers are back, my powers are back, my powers are back, and they're about to go out of control, they're about to go out of control, they're about to go out of control. . ."

"Terra!"

Terra looked over at Aqualad. "I know what you're thinking!" Aqualad shouted. "Don't worry!"

"What do you mean don't worry!?" Terra yelled in fearful despair. "My powers are back!"

"That's a good thing!" Aqualad yelled. "Now you can truly fight!"

"No I can't!" Terra screamed. "I can't control them! I never could! I still can't! Not without help!"

"Yes you can!" Aqualad yelled back. He cupped his hands around his mouth. "Trust me! You can do this!"

The earthquake continued, slowly spreading towards the outer boundary of the island and towards the sea, and thus coming at risk of expanding to there all the way to the mainland. Terra grimaced, nearly in tears from fear and despair. "How?!" Terra whimpered.

Aqualad took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "Just calm down, don't panic, don't think, just do."

"Are you kidding?!" Terra shrieked. "How can I possibly calm down in a time like this!? That's impossible!"

"No it's not!"

Terra's eyes widened at the sound of the voice she'd just heard speaking that phrase. Aqualad and Geo-Force also found their eyes widening in shock at the sound, Aqualad as a result of surprise and relief, and Geo-Force as a result of pure shock. They all looked in the direction they'd heard the voice coming from, and saw Raven hovering nearby, her mouth no longer sealed shut with Geo-Force's makeshift gag and evidently having managed to return from her unwilling dip in the ocean. "I used to be just as afraid as you are, and I had just as much difficulty every now and then in the past with my own power as you've always had with yours. It may be difficult, but it's not impossible." She extended her hands in the terrified blonde geomancer's direction. "Just take deep breaths, focus, find your center, and just concentrate on whatever you can think of that might help you relax and be calm. I know you can do that Terra. I know you can."

An unearthly bellowing noise suddenly split the air, and all four of the gathered combatants turned their heads towards the large rock pile that Beast Boy had been buried under just in time for it to suddenly explode out of shape, revealing a large green ankylosaurus standing in the area the boulders had been covering. The dinosaur let out its groaning reptilian bellow, slammed its clubbed tail on the ground thrice, and then transformed into a familiar green teenage boy. "Raven's right Terra!" the shapeshifter shouted in agreement. "You can do this! I know you can!"

"We all know you can!"

Terra, Raven, Beast Boy, Aqualad, and Geo-Force all looked around, and saw none other than all the other Titans that had been knocked into the water now standing in various positions around the island area surrounding them, all of them perfectly fine and out of the water, though admittedly still soaking wet. "You can do this!"

"Si!" shouted two voices in unison from within two rocky domes.

At the sound of all this, Terra found a slight smile on her face, though her eyes still conveyed just as much sadness and fear as they conveyed joy in that instant.

Then Terra abruptly felt hands come upon her shoulders from in front of her, and she turned her head in time to see none other than Aqualad standing right in front of her with his hands on her shoulders and his black eyes looking straight into her own sky blue ones. "You can do this Terra," the Atlantean stated calmly and patiently. "Just believe in yourself Terra, just believe."

For a moment, Terra was completely lost in her own world, staring into Aqualad's eyes in half despairingly and half dreamily. But then she finally snapped out of it, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, exhaled, and then lifted up her hands and started humming a low tune to herself. And in that moment, she rapidly worked to think of every positive memory she could think of, from her days as a child playing with Bryan in Markovia, the happy days she'd known from life with her aunt and uncle before her powers had started causing trouble, all the pleasant and happy times she'd spent with Aqualad and the Jump City Titans, her first true friends, the moment when she'd managed to save Jump City in one of the most heroic sacrifices possible, all her progress she'd made in patching things up with them following everything that had happened since, her ever lingering hope that her brother could yet be saved and redeemed, and most of all the stunning and joyous revelation that her own brother had allowed her to be exposed to in regard to the true nature of how she and Aqualad felt for each other. And then, after what seemed like an eternity, but was in reality only about one or two minutes, the immensely powerful and rapid shaking from the earth began to noticeably diminish in power and then stopped altogether.

Terra opened her eyes, and then they widened in shock and joy. "I . . . I did it." Her eyes brightened. "I actually did it!"

"No!"

The 9 teens all directed their attention at Geo-Force, who had finally gotten back up on his feet and now had an angry look on his face. "No! No! No!" The angry boy geomancer pointed his finger accusingly at Terra. "No fair!" he roared. "Your powers were gone! They were supposed to stay gone! You're supposed to be powerless! You weren't supposed to get your powers back! No fair!"

Terra snapped her right arm forward, palm facing towards Geo-Force, and a large diagonal pillar of stone burst out of the ground and pounded the older geomancer in the face. Geo-Force went flying backward and crash landed about a yard or so away. He started to get up, shaking his head and groaning in a mixture of pain and anger.

"Hate to break it to you big bro," said Terra. Her brother snapped his head into position for directly facing Terra, snarling in rage. "But guess what, sometimes life just isn't fair." She placed her fists on her hips, standing tall with a smile on her face. "And as you can see, whether you like it or not, my powers are back; and this time, I can control them instead of letting them control me."

"Why you . . ." Geo-Force growled. He summoned a small volley of boulders and sent them rocketing towards Terra.

Terra smirked, extended her hand towards the boulders, causing them to halt in midair. "You're gonna have to try an awful lot harder than that!" Terra yelled.

Geo-Force snarled. "With pleasure." He summoned a flying rock from underneath his feet, and sent himself airborne on his new transport. Terra calmly summoned a flying rock transport of her own, and she too took to the skies.

The two siblings came to a stop near the hole in the central front top window of the tower, and Geo-Force growled, summoned another storm of boulders and started sending them rocketing towards his younger sister one by one. Terra calmly dodged left and right, simultaneously levitating herself closer and closer towards her irate brother. After yet another dodge, she jumped off her flying rock towards Geo-Force, her foot already at the ready to give him a flying ninja kick.

Geo-Force was unceremoniously knocked off his perch when Terra's foot slammed into his face, and he landed unceremoniously on his back. Terra, meanwhile, made a much more graceful landing by turning her impact into a series of backwards somersaults that ended with her sliding backwards to a halt on her hands and feet. The two riderless flying rocks crash landed on the ground between them.

Geo-Force got back on his feet, snarled, and sent a river of sand flying from his hands towards Terra. Terra spun around in circles, causing a respectable vortex of sand to form around her that harmlessly absorbed her brother's attack. Then she caused all the sand to merge together into a massive wall of sand that she promptly sent surging towards Geo-Force in a tsunami shaped blast of sand.

The sandy tsunami plowed into Geo-Force and sent him reeling. He eventually came to a stop, and he jumped free of the sand. Upon landing, he started rapidly punching the ground again and again, alternating from his right fist to his left fist, and causing a rapid-fire series of seismic shockwaves.

Terra calmly walked towards Geo-Force, stomping her feet so hard in direct synchronization with her angry brother's seismic punches that she was able to negate the effect and avoid getting knocked off her feet. Geo-Force, too enraged at the sight of his attack failing to understand how it was failing, only proceeded to continue punching the ground, only stopping as a result of being forced to by getting punched in the face and sent flying by Terra.

Geo-Force managed to get back on his feet, snarl angrily at Terra, and send a line of stalagmites erupting in a straight line towards her with another punch on the ground. Terra punched the ground, and the resulting line of stalagmites she summoned crashed into Geo-Force's, causing both attacks to cancel each other out.

Geo-Force lifted his fists, growling inarticulately with rage, and slammed them both on the ground at once, sending a DNA helix shaped seismic rupture rushing towards his sister. Terra summoned a flying rock transport, and hovered out of the attack's path and clean over it, making sure to jump off right as it was a couple feet away from hovering over Geo-Force. When she landed right behind Geo-Force, her brother had just enough time to turn his head before Terra punched him in the face and sent him flying over his summoned attack, which collapsed into dust right as he was halfway across the distance it had covered. Geo-Force landed hard on his back, only to get back on his feet once more, and roar wordlessly at Terra in rage yet again, now even angrier then before.

With a clap of his hands, Geo-Force sent a beam wave of noise waves complete with a fissure on the ground underneath said beam rushing towards Terra. Terra slammed her right fist on the ground, causing a wall of rocks and dust to burst up in front of her that harmlessly absorbed her brother's attack. No sooner had Geo-Force's latest failed attack dissipated into nothing when Terra lowered her shield, a smug smirk on her face.

Geo-Force snarled, summoned a glob of mud, and hurled it at Terra. Terra caused a mud geyser to erupt directly in front of her, absorbing the mud glob her brother had thrown, and then sent all the mud rushing towards him in the shape of a tidal wave. Geo-Force caused a small horizontal fissure to open up in front of his feet, and the mud fell into the chasm without so much as touching him. Geo-Force closed the fissure, stomped his left foot, and stomp kicked the earthen projectile that popped up from the ground in response towards his sister. Terra did a flying roundhouse kick that sent the projectile flying right back at Geo-Force. The projectile plowed into her brother's chest and sent him rocketing backward.

Roaring in fury, Geo-Force summoned a massive airborne volley of boulders, and started to send them rocketing one by one towards Terra. Terra summoned a boulder volley of her own, and repeated the maneuver against Geo-Force at the exact same time. One by one, each and every boulder that the two geomancers sent flying at each other harmlessly crashed together and burst into dust until both of them eventually had only one boulder each left from their original summoned volley.

For a few seconds, the two siblings stared each other down, Geo-Force with an angry look on his face and Terra with a confidant smirk on her face. With a howl of fury, Geo-Force sent his last currently summoned boulder flying towards Terra. His sister almost lazily leaned over to her right, and the boulder rocketed right past her before harmlessly landing with a respectably sized splash into the ocean. Then Terra straightened back up and sent her own final currently summoned boulder hurtling towards Geo-Force. The attack was so much faster than Geo-Force's similar attack that the boy geomancer didn't get the chance to react before his sister's projectile smacked into his chest and sent him stumbling backward, rapidly flapping his arms around in an effort to avoid losing his footing.

Then Terra's eyes and hands started glowing with a familiar yellow aura, and with a scream of rage, she jumped into the air, did a complete 360-degree sideways flip, and karate chopped the ground with her right hand at the exact moment she landed, causing an extra powerful shockwave that blasted Geo-Force off his feet and sent him rocketing backwards. No sooner had Geo-Force landed when the yellow glow faded away from Terra's eyes and hands, and she found herself panting from the effort. Then she stopped panting, and a smile came upon her face.

Geo-Force clambered back up onto his feet, snorted angrily at Terra, and then started dashing headlong towards her, shrieking in fury. Terra leaned back, taking a step back with her right leg and bending it as if she were about to jump. And jump she did, right as Geo-Force was a couple footsteps away from crashing into her. And as she sailed over her charging brother, Terra slammed her right foot on the back of his neck and caused him to fall flat on his face before skidding painfully to a halt. Terra landed on her hands in a style that allowed her to turn the impact into a roll. And as she rolled, she managed to get herself turned around so that she was facing Geo-Force when she managed to skid to a stop back on her feet.

Geo-Force managed to get back on his own feet, growl in Terra's direction, and sent another volley of boulders rocketing her way. Terra leaped out of the way, forcing Raven to hurriedly summon a force field to shield herself and the other Titans. Terra managed to come to a stop in her series of somersaults right in front of where the front door of the tower was located and straighten back up on her feet to face Geo-Force. Her brother snarled, his eyes glowing solid yellow, and lifted up his left palm so that it was facing directly towards Terra. At the same time Geo-Force did so, the hand in question started glowing with the same yellow aura as his eyes. Without saying a word or missing a beat, Terra calmly lifted up her right palm in the same fashion, both the palm and her eyes likewise glowing with the distinctive yellow aura.

With a scream of rage, Geo-Force thrusted his arm further forward, and a beam of yellow energy sprang from his left hand towards Terra. Terra repeated the gesture, and a beam of her own spouted out from her right hand and crashed into Geo-Force's. For the next few seconds, the beams remained connected together, crackling and sparking as the two geomancers fought for dominance. And as they remained like this, growling and grunting from the effort, a massive glowing yellow orb appeared at the intersection point, and after another few minutes, the same orb eventually exploded, releasing such force that both geomancers were sent flying backward in their respective directions.

Geo-Force landed on his back nearby the ocean, and Terra slammed into the rocky covering encasing the front of Titans Tower East. Terra shrieked in pain from the impact, and she slid down onto her backside, groaning and whimpering. Geo-Force got up onto his feet, snarled at his downed sister in a mixture of rage and triumph, and lifted his hand as if about to summon an attack to finish her off.

"Oh no you don't!"

At the sound of Raven's voice coming from behind him, Geo-Force turned his head in time to see Raven and Beast Boy burst out of a vortex of shadows and start rushing towards him, Beast Boy going so far as to turn into a wolf. Geo-Force wordlessly lifted up his right hand, and a yellow vortex materialized above the area Raven and Beast Boy were seconds away from running across before a massive column of stones and dust fell out of the vortex and plummeted down towards that area. Beast Boy and Raven managed to unwittingly skid to a stop in shock right underneath the pillar, and they mentally cursed and tensed himself in an instinctive futile effort at defense, Beast Boy even going so far as to revert back to his human form.

But then they felt the pillar crash onto something without touching them, and the chromatically challenged duo opened their eyes in surprise before they then heard what sounded like pained groaning coming from in front of them. They looked in front of them in time to see Cyborg on his knees holding the pillar up above his head with both hands, groaning with his teeth gritted and eyes closed from the pain and effort of holding up the massive column that would have otherwise crushed him and his chromatically challenged friends by now.

Geo-Force growled in anger at the sight of this interruption, and he clenched the very fist that he'd used to trigger the now interrupted attack. As a result, the pillar inexplicably began to increase in height, adding on to the weight that Cyborg was trying to hold up. Cyborg's grunting and groaning began to increase in volume, and he noticeably tensed up further as a result.

"You stop that right now!"

At the sound of Robin's voice coming from his left, Geo-Force snapped his head to face that direction, simultaneously causing a massive 3-pointed comb-shaped slab of stone to appear in midair and go rocketing towards none other than Robin, Starfire, and Speedy who had happened to gather behind Terra in an effort to help get her to safety before noticing the plight of Cyborg, Raven, and Beast Boy. The summoned attack hurtled towards the three Titans so fast, that they only had enough time to instinctively tense up in defensive positions . . . before they then heard what sounded like a girl letting out groans of pain and effort coming from right in front of them. They opened their eyes and looked in front of them in time to see Terra back on her feet, tensed up, eyes closed, and teeth gritted, as she worked as hard as she could to push against the deadly projectile and keep it from impaling her and the three other teens behind her.

Geo-Force's eyes narrowed, his teeth gritted into a feral snarl, and he then increased the pressure of his attacks. Before long, Terra started sliding slowly backwards towards Robin, Starfire, and Speedy, growling and wheezing from the effort at trying to force the 3-pointed slab of rock away from her and back towards her brother. Cyborg, meanwhile, let out a scream of agony and collapsed onto his knees as sparks started to fly from all over his body and cracks and frayed wires started to burst from his arms. And even as this happened, the eyes of the respective people they were trying to protect developed a shared look of nervousness and fear, and even emitted the exact same unnerved whimper in unison. For what seemed like an eternity, this brutal power struggle continued to unfold. And before long, it soon became clear that the teen heroes were all in dire peril of dying right then and there. And Geo-Force could tell just as easily as the seven teens, and a smug smirk came on his face as he proceeded to increase the 'pressure' one more time. It seemed now to be crystal clear that victory would be his. Terra opened her eyes, despair and fear once again showing clear as day within them, and she let out a despairing whimpering gasp as she saw how very nightmarishly close the central point of the projectile she was trying to hold back now was to impaling her right through the chest. Geo-Force's grin widened, his eyes brightened with maniacal malicious glee, and he started laughing triumphantly. "Victory is mine!"

A jet of water pounded into his back, a violently crackling and sparking beam of lightning crashing into his back just as hard at the exact same time as the water. And within seconds, Geo-Force tensed in what had to be painfully quickly into a reared up position as he unexpectedly became instantly encased with tendrils of electricity. "YYYYOOOOWWWW!" Geo-Force howled in agony at an impossibly loud volume that rapidly increased in pitch within mere seconds. At the exact same time that the ginger haired boy geomancer unleashed his earsplitting scream of agony, the 3-pointed projectile that he'd been attempting to stab Terra reared up so that the points were facing harmlessly up towards the sky, and the pillar of stones and dust that he'd been attempting to crush Cyborg, Raven, and Beast Boy with started almost comically jiggling around from side to side with clouds of dust bursting off of the sides and cracks starting to rapidly encase it from top to bottom. Even as all this happened, the 7 teen heroes that were so recently on the verge of death could only gape in stunned shock, yet at the same time genuine horror, at what was happening.

Then Geo-Force tensed his face up, closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and then let out another, but this time even louder, agonized howl that sounded even more despairing and pained. At that point, Terra had to close her eyes and look away, her closed eyes still on the verge of tears as she continued to hear her brother's agonized wailing in spite of having now allowed herself to be spared from seeing what was happening. Then Geo-Force ceased his howl, his body ominously relaxed, and his eyes opened to reveal a pained and exhausted look into them before he then closed his eyes back up, moaned, and fell flat on his face. The jet of water and beam of lightning that had been relentlessly pounding away at his back faded away to nothing immediately after this. No sooner was Geo-Force downed, and the elemental attacks that had been causing him so much pain ceased, when the 3-pointed slab of stone dropped down on the ground and harmlessly toppled over so that the points were facing Geo-Force instead of its intended targets, and Cyborg managed to lift up the stony pillar a couple inches before then causing it to tip over and land on its side on the ground between him and Geo-Force with an emphatic pounding noise. Meanwhile, the two stony domes that had encased Mas and Menos cracked and crumbled to dust, freeing the two twin speedsters, who promptly dashed off towards their friends.

"Is everyone ok?"

The seven teens that had now so narrowly evaded death and the two 10-year old twins who'd unwillingly sat out on the entire drama, turned their heads towards the area where the attack that granted them their salvation had come from, and saw none other than Aqualad and Bumblebee standing nearby, with the Atlantean's hands and the winged surface dweller's stingers still pointing in Geo-Force's general direction. Their seven friends panted and gasped for a couple minutes. Then Robin lifted up his right hand and gave his two saviors a thumbs up. "We're good. Thanks to you."

"That's good," said Aqualad. Then the Atlantean found himself unexpectedly sliding backward a couple inches as a result of Terra plowing into him and giving him a big hug. Only after the two teens came to a stop did Aqualad manage to notice that Terra had her eyes closed and was crying in a mixture of sadness and relief.

The half Markovian tightened her embrace, still crying, and managed to tearfully state, "Thank you, thank you, thank you," again and again and again. For a moment, Aqualad was completely lost for words, then his face softened into a mixture of relief and joy, and he finally returned Terra's embrace, making sure to whisper repeatedly into her ear that everything would now be ok.

Beast Boy watched the embracing Atlantean and half Markovian intently, one half of him feeling a small twinge of jealousy. But then his other half completely won over, and he closed his eyes and nodded his head in acceptance, directing a small smile towards them when he opened his eyes back up. "You go on ahead," he thought to himself. "You guys deserve it, especially you Terra."

A pained and weakened groan from where Geo-Force was positioned drew the attention of the 9 teens back down to Earth, and they all turned their heads to face the downed boy geomancer. Geo-Force was still lying face down on the ground, moaning and groaning in pain. Terra's eyes widened at the sight of brother, and the resulting reminder of what had just happened to put him into his current state. "My brother," she said in a clearly worried tone as she let go of Aqualad and turned around to completely face her brother. "Is he alright?"

Robin carefully walked over to the unconscious geomancer, and placed his finger against his neck. "He's ok," said the Boy Wonder. "His pulse is weak, but he's still got one."

"That," said Beast Boy. "Plus he appears to be breathing and the fact that we just heard him moaning and groaning should also be likewise strong proof that he's alive."

Cyborg rolled his eyes. "Indeed," he commented dryly. He looked back down at Geo-Force, then turned his head to face Bumblebee. "And I must say, for a guy who's immune to electricity, you sure did a number on him Bee."

Bumblebee nodded her head in agreement, though her face also showed slight unease. "Well to be honest, I wasn't expecting for him to be effected that way anymore than you were." She gestured towards the unconscious geomancer. "You gotta understand. Aqualad and I saw how much peril you all were in, and we got desperate. At best, we were hoping that we'd at least manage to knock Geo-Force out of position and make him lose his focus. But I most certainly wasn't expecting him to go up in lights and agony like that, least of all upon getting struck by my stingers. Heck, that beam I just shot at him wasn't even at the maximum power that I could have it at. At the very most, that beam was probably at 1/10th, maybe even 1/8th of the maximum voltage."

Aqualad lifted up his right hand and looked closely at it. "Well to be honest," said the Atlantean, "I think that my attack may have had something to do with it."

The other Titans all looked at Aqualad. "Granted, I can't entirely say for certain that I'm correct here, but I'm thinking that maybe Bumblebee's zapping while I was simultaneously splashing him with water overrode his natural immunity to electricity and allowed us to electrocute him."

The other Titans all thought to themselves. "That does actually somewhat make sense now that I think about it," said Robin.

"Well whatever was behind it all," said Speedy. "Thank goodness it happened."

Cyborg chuckled weakly, taking a meaningful look at his arms in the process. "Yeah, no kidding." Beast Boy and Raven's eyes widened at the visual reminder of just how much peril Cyborg had placed himself into for their sake. Then they looked each other in the eyes, silently vowing to properly thank their friend later.

At the sound of another groan from Geo-Force, the 11 young heroes turned their attention to him just in time to see the boy geomancer seemingly working to get up on his hands and knees. In a flash, they all tensed up into positions that would allow them to react appropriately if the need arose for them to fight Geo-Force. For what seemed like an eternity, Geo-Force pushed and pushed to get back up on his feet, groaning in pain. Then he managed to completely straighten up, but not without a brief bit of wobbling and nearly falling back down. Finally he managed to gain sure strong footing, and he slowly, and with a bit of wobbling and near falling, managed to turn around to face the 9 teens and 2 elementary school aged children gathered around behind him, his eyes half open and the rest of his face likewise showing a mixture of pain and grogginess. Then his eyes brightened in a mixture of surprise and alarm, and he tensed up while lifting up his hands in what seemed to be a warding gesture. "Wha . . . what's going on? What happened here? Where am I?"

. . . . .

The 11 young heroes remained standing where they were, gaping in a mixture of shock and disbelief at the same person who'd just not too long ago been brutally zapped unconscious right as he was also in the midst of ruthlessly attacking them that now was acting as if he didn't even know what was going on or where he was. Still on guard, Terra leaned a little towards Geo-Force. "Bryan?" she asked.

Geo-Force directed his entire focus on her, and then his eyes widened in stunned recognition. "Tara!" he yelled. "Is that really you?! What are you doing here?!"

"Hold on now," Beast Boy growled, leaning forward with a suspicion filled glare on his face. "Do you really expect us to . . ."

"He's not pretending."

The other Titans all looked at Raven right as her eyes very clearly turned from a glowing white to her natural color, further adding to her clearly stunned facial expression. "I just looked into his mind," she explained. "And it's . . . different now."

Geo-Force reared back, his left hand on top of his head and his right hand pointing at Raven. "You," he stated fearfully with a clearly unnerved expression on his face. "You were in my head?!" Raven's stunned expression from hearing these words was all the answer the geomancer needed, and he rapidly extended both of his arms forward with his palms seemingly gesturing for Raven to stay away from him. "Stay away from me, stay out of my head!"

"Bryan!"

Geo-Force looked back at Terra, who took a deep breath, exhaled, and then calmly asked, "What do you remember from before finding yourself here?"

Geo-Force thought to himself. "Well, I remember flying around on a floating rock above the forest somewhere the royal capital and the neighboring city to the west. It was night, and I was just considering whether or not to go back to the castle or keep enjoying myself for another few minutes when I saw something flash from out the corner of my left eye. I had just enough time to turn my head when . . . something . . . crashed into me, and I remember free falling through the sky, and I blacked out when I landed." He scrunched his face up, trying to remember if there was anything else. "I remember waking up and finding myself lying down strapped to some table or something in . . . I think a cave. Some hooded dark cloaked figure was standing nearby, holding what looked like some sort of nasty looking needle in his hands, and it looked right down at my face . . . he had these big glowing solid red eyes . . . and he lifted one of his hands away from the needle thing, and it glowed with black energy . . . then he clenched it around the top of my head, and I remember this burning feeling in my head and this voice in my mind roaring for me to go to sleep. And then I just, blacked out again."

Geo-Force put his left hand up against his forehead, closed his eyes, and groaned in pain. "I'm not entirely sure I remember entirely anything that may have happened after that, but I think I vaguely remember some sort of bizarre dream about that same cloaked figure as well as some caveman and a girl with a cat-like mask, and somehow being in America instead of Markovia, and attacking a bunch of people and talking nonsense about invasions and conversions and encountering you, and very nearly even kill . . ."

The elder geomancer's eyes widened. "Killing you and a bunch of other people." He then looked right back at Terra and his eyes widened as he managed to get a good look at all the other people standing around her. "You," he said hesitantly while pointing nervously at each of the other Titans one by one. "Some of the people I attacked in my dreams, they looked just like you. . ."

"Bryan," said Terra. "I hate to tell you this, but you weren't dreaming. All that stuff you reportedly 'dreamed' about . . . it actually happened."

Geo-Force's eyes widened. "What?!" he yelled. He turned his head to his right, his eyes widening again as he saw the still mostly encased Titans Tower East. "No!" he yelled. "No, that can't be! That's impossible. . ." He paused. "Wait a minute." He looked back at Terra. "What day is it?"

Terra raised her eyebrow. "It's Friday."

Geo-Force grimaced. "Urgh, sorry, I meant month, what month is it?"

"It's August," said Beast Boy.

Geo-Force's eyes widened in shock and horror. "No!" he screamed. "That can't be right, that can't! It's May! There's no way I could have been out for that much time . . ." Then his eyes widened again as all the mental dots finally connected together in his mind, and thus confirmed in his mind that everything he'd just heard about the true nature of his supposed 'dreams' was in fact true.

"No, no, no!" Geo-Force clenched both hands on his head, eyes wide and blazing with panic and terror. "No! No! No! Oh my God, what happened!? What happened!? Oh no, what have I done, what have I done, what have I done?!"

"Sir," said Robin as he calmly extended his hand towards the panicked geomancer. "Please calm down."

"What do you mean calm down?!" Geo-Force yelled, damn near shrieking from fear. "How am I supposed to be calm in a situation like this?!"

"Easy now," said Cyborg as he started slowly stepping forward while also pressing a few keys on his right arm. "Let me take a quick examination."

Geo-Force saw what Cyborg was doing and heard what he said. "What are you doing?" he asked fearfully. "Stay away from me!"

"Bryan," said Terra. "It's ok, you don't have to worry. You can trust these people, and you're going to get a mental probing this time. This guy just wants to give you a strictly physical medical scan."

Geo-Force tensed up in fear, then with clear effort managed to take a deep breath, and nod his head up and down. "Ok," he then said. "Ok. Alright, I'm ok. Whatever it is he needs to do, just tell him to get it over with."

Cyborg did not need to hear this twice, and he activated a scanning function in his right arm. After about a minute, the results uploaded onto the screen. Cyborg looked closely at the results, and then nodded his head. "Yep, this confirms it."

"Confirms what?"

Cyborg stepped forward and let Geo-Force have a chance to look at what was on the screen. "This is a complete medical scan of the entirety of your internal space."

Geo-Force closely examined the scanned images, and then his eyes widened as he noticed a detail that he knew for a fact was not naturally found in the human body. "What are those?!" he yelled in terror while pointing at a series of very ominous looking red dots positioned in varying areas around where his nervous system was located.

All the other Titans took a look, and all of two seconds passed before Aqualad, Terra, and Cyborg's fellow founding members nodded their heads up and down.

"Yep, this definitely confirms it," said Robin.

"Confirms what!?"

Terra turned her head to face her brother. "Those dots you see inside you right now? Those are mind control nanotech probes."

Geo-Force's eyes widened. "Mind control!?" he yelled in shock and fear.

"Yes, mind control," said Raven. "That needle you mentioned being in the hands of that cloaked figure you were talking about? I'm guessing that must have been how he implanted the technology into you."

"And you weren't the only one who had those machines controlling you," said Aqualad. "Someone, presumably the same guy who implanted that tech inside you, also had it inside a giant sea monster he sent after me to try to stop me blowing the whistle. But my friends managed to set it free without even realizing it at the time. And now, it seems we may have just freed you as well."

Geo-Force thought to himself, his fear still slowly receding away and allowing him to think clearly and pay full attention to what was being said. "But how?" he asked.

"Electrocution," said Bumblebee, who lifted up the stinger in her right hand. "The five teens that weren't with us when you first attacked at this location managed to electrocute the monster sent after Fish Boy unconscious, inadvertently setting it free. And as of not too long ago, it would appear that by zapping with my stingers while Aqualad simultaneously splashed you with his water, we managed to shut off the same tech in you completely by accident."

Geo-Force thought to himself, then found a small smile coming on his face as he realized that the current theory behind his apparently being free in spite of being immune to the apparently only easy way to permanently shut off the mind control he'd been subjected to made quite a bit of sense. "Well in that case," said Geo-Force, "I owe you a lot. . . um . . . who are you again?"

Terra placed her hand on her brother's shoulder. "We can all catch up with each other later. Right now, you really could use some rest."

"I can definitely agree to that," Aqualad agreed. The majority of the other Titans also seemed to be in agreement.

Beast Boy, on the other hand, clearly had something else on his mind that appeared to be reason for him to be worried. "I'm pleased and all about you apparently being free, but something's still bugging me."

"And what might that thing be?" Robin asked.

Beast Boy looked over at Cyborg. "Didn't you say that the tech's designed to detach from the host's nervous system upon shutting down?"

"Yes."

"Then why does the tech still appear to be attached to Geo-Force's nervous system?"

Cyborg's eyes widened, and so did those of Geo-Force and the other Titans. As one, they all looked at the images from the scanner once again, and found themselves mentally admitting worriedly that the tech indeed did appear to disturbingly be positioned as if still connected to Geo-Force's nervous system. Terra chuckled nervously. "Maybe it's just taking a while to detach?" Terra asked partially to herself in a clearly nervous tone.

Then Geo-Force tensed up, his eyes widening in shock and horror.

"Bryan?" Terra asked upon seeing her brother react in this fashion. "What's going on?"

"Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Some sort of . . . buzzing noise."

Geo-Force looked down towards his chest, then grimaced as if suddenly feeling a bit of pain. "And I'm starting to feel some sort of . . . burning sensation . . . inside me."

Cyborg pressed a few keys on his right arm, and his eye widened at what he ended up finding as a result. "Oh dear."

"What is it?" Terra asked fearfully.

"If my current theory about the ongoing calculations I'm currently getting is correct, then it would appear that, while Aqualad and Bee did manage to shut down the tech, they only managed to temporarily short it out. And right now, judging from my readings and what Geo-Force said about some sort of buzzing and burning, it would appear that the tech's starting to charge back up."

"I'm guessing that's bad," said Beast Boy.

"You bet," said Cyborg. "Unless we do something soon, that tech's gonna reactivate." He lifted his head and looked straight at Terra and Geo-Force. "And more likely than not, you'll end up right back under its control."

Geo-Force's eyes widened, and he hurriedly stepped back, almost tripping himself up. "No!" he howled. "No, you can't let that happen! I won't let that happen! I won't! No way, I am not letting that stuff take over me again! Especially not after what I was doing right before you shut it down earlier!"

"Geo-Force, please calm down," said Raven.

"Calm down!?" Geo-Force hissed. "When I'm about to fall under the influence of mind control that will turn me into a cold blooded killing freak?! You must be joking!"

"Bryan please," said Terra. "Everything will be fine. It already got shut down for this tiny bit of time. I'm sure it can still be shut down permanently."

"Can't they just blast him again?" Beast Boy asked while pointing at Aqualad and Bumblebee.

"And just delay the reactivation again?" Bumblebee asked. "I don't think so!"

"Actually," said Aqualad. He looked over at Bumblebee. "Didn't you say that your stingers weren't even set to maximum voltage?"

The other Titans, plus Terra and Geo-Force, all looked over at Bumblebee, who thought to herself, and then nodded. "Well yeah, now that you mention it, yes I did." She looked at her stingers. "I suppose maybe if I turned up the power high enough, a second blast combined with your water could possibly shut down that tech completely." Then she grimaced. "Still, repeating that little stunt, especially with my stinger blasts at higher voltage, that's an awfully risky thing for us to do. Especially considering how strongly Geo-Force was affected by just that one relatively weak blast . . ."

"Set it to maximum."

In a flash, all 10 titans, plus Terra, turned their heads to face Geo-Force who was pointing his finger at Bumblebee and had a calm, set, and determined look on his face. "You heard me. Set it to maximum, and blast me again."

For a brief moment, the 11 young heroes remained speechless. Then Bumblebee looked back down at her stingers. "Well, if you say so, I guess Aqualad and I can go ahead and blast you again, but maximum power? Are you sure? I mean, just that one weak blast I shot you with not too long ago left you barely alive. Too much higher than that and I could very well end up killing you . . ."

"Doesn't matter," said Geo-Force. "Anything's better than losing myself to that nightmare all over again." He then smiled weakly. "I remember being . . . 'awake'. . . long enough to hear about this phrase you Americans say . . . go big or go home?"

Bumblebee and Aqualad looked each other in the eyes, clearly still not entirely certain if they were willing to go through with this very risky idea. Robin decided that an extra push was needed. "Hate to say this guys," said the Boy Wonder. "But this decision isn't for either of you two to make."

"Thank you," said Geo-Force.

"It's Terra's."

Terra's eyes widened in shock upon hearing this. "What?!" she asked.

"You heard me," said Robin. "If anyone deserves the right to make the final decision, it's you." He pointed at Geo-Force. "It's your brother who's at risk of potentially dying for the sake of attempting to get permanently free from that mind control. If anyone should get the final say as to whether or not we should go through with this risk, it's you."

Terra gaped at Robin, her eyes wide and mouth gaping open, stunned speechless. "What the . . . but . . . I . . ."

Geo-Force wasted no time. "Do it Terra!" he yelled in a very desperate sounding tone. "Let them do it! For God's sake, I'm begging you Terra; let them do it!"

Terra looked at her brother, her eyes very quickly becoming on the verge of tears. "No," she eventually managed to stammer. "I can't, I won't!"

"You have to!" Geo-Force yelled. "Look, I don't like this idea any more than you do, but right now, we don't really have any other options."

"No, this can't be the only way!" Terra screamed, now starting to sound quite shrill and ragged. "There has to be another way! There has to be!"

"Maybe there is, maybe there isn't," said Geo-Force. "But regardless, we don't have time to experiment and take shots in the dark. I need that stuff inside me gone, and I need it done _now_."

Terra whimpered. At this point, she wanted to scream in despair so badly, yet at the same time knew she had to be stronger than that at the current moment. "Please, Bryan please," she begged. "You can't do this to me; you can't!" She hung her head, clenched her fists, sniffled, and then looked back at her brother with her eyes open and seconds away from bursting into tears. "You could die."

Geo-Force sighed, closed his eyes, and nodded his head. "What can I say?" He looked back at his sister, a nervous smile on his face. "Occupational hazard."

Terra had to fight to keep herself from screaming. "Don't joke about that," she whimpered.

"Well hey," said Geo-Force, "I've got what, six or seven years or so of sibling rivalry to catch up on." He then sighed, and a solemn look came on his face. "And at least now, regardless of what happens, at least I'll have caught up on this tiny little bit."

"Don't talk like that Bryan," said Terra.

"Why not?" Geo-Force asked seemingly quite shockingly nonchalantly. "It's true. And besides, regardless of how this plan turns out, the result will be heck of a lot better than having that psychopath return."

"But you'd at least be guaranteed to still be alive!" Terra yelled.

"Terra come on!" Geo-Force shouted. "The last few days, you've been willing to do practically anything to avoid following the path of a villain! I remember that much from what I was able to be awake for! I'm your brother! Why should I be any different!?"

"I JUST GOT YOU BACK!" Terra screamed. Immediately after letting out that despairing shrill shriek, Terra snapped her mouth closed, started quivering, her eyes practically fit to burst with the accumulated moisture. "I just got you back, Bryan. I don't want to lose you all over again, not so soon. I can't lose you like this all over again. I can't. I can't. I can't . . ." She closed her eyes, clenched her fists, and then promptly started bawling.

Geo-Force's impatient and tense looking face promptly softened, and he placed his hands on his crying sister's shoulders. Terra tensed up, then opened her eyes and looked up into her brother's face, tears still trickling down her face. "I understand Tara," said Geo-Force. "Honest I do. And believe me, I don't want to die and be lost from you like this any more than you. But sometimes we just can't always get what we want."

Terra sniffed, fighting to avoid bursting into a teary eyed downpour all over again. "It's not fair."

"No it is not," Geo-Force agreed. "But I'd rather die a hero right this very second then live to the end of the day as a villain and be forced to spend the rest of my life with my sister's blood both literally and figuratively on my hands." Terra sniffled again upon hearing this. She didn't want her brother to die, but she also didn't even want to think of how much worse it would be if Geo-Force ended up killing her himself as a direct result of her refusing to let him undergo what was potentially the only way to set him free from the very element that would make him capable of committing such a horrible action.

Geo-Force removed his hands from Terra's shoulders, and stepped back three times. "Come on Tara," Geo-Force said, his arms spreading full length to his sides. "It's now or never. I can hear and feel that tech inside me struggling to seize me back under control. You know what has to be done. Do it Tara."

Terra hesitated, mentally fighting to decide.

"Do it Tara!" Geo-Force yelled, his eyes now widening with obvious fear.

Terra closed her eyes, and tensed up, clearly fighting not to cry.

"Do it!" Geo-Force yelled. He rapidly flapped his arms up and down. "DO IT!"

Terra gritted her teeth, and opened her eyes, revealing her now quite fragile looking blue eyes to be seconds away from once again bursting into tears.

Then Beast Boy tensed up, his ears sticking straight upwards and his eyes widened. "Do you hear that?" he asked.

The other eight teens, plus Mas and Menos listened, and found their own eyes widening as they too suddenly heard a very disturbingly loud sounding nightmarish buzzing noise. Geo-Force's own eyes widened as he too noticed the alarming increase in volume of the same buzzing that had already been in his ears for so long. "It's already starting!" he yelled in a clear panic. "It's gonna happen any moment now! Make it stop Tara! Save me Tara!" The buzzing noise then got even louder to the point that Beast Boy slapped his hands over his ears, closed his eyes, reared his head up, and HOWLED in agony. Geo-Force's eyes widened, and he reared his head slightly back, an unnerving yellow glow starting to form around his entire body and within his eyes. "HELP ME!" he roared.

In that instant, Terra's mind was finally made up. She turned her head away from Geo-Force and closed her eyes. "Do it," she whimpered.

"As you wish," said Aqualad, and he got into position.

Bumblebee nodded, and aimed her stingers at Geo-Force, setting them to maximum power at the same time. "Here we go your highness," said Bumblebee. "This is gonna hurt!"

"Thanks for the warning!" Geo-Force screamed.

Aqualad rapidly jerked his hands upward, and Geo-Force was completely engulfed by a massive spout of water that erupted from directly underneath him. And at the exact same time that the geyser erupted, Bumblebee fired a massive conjoined bolt of lightning from her stingers that slammed against the geomancer's chest and spread across his entire body as well as the surface of the watery spout. Within seconds, the entire area was illuminated impossibly bright by the light of the electricity engulfing the geyser from the inside and outside, and the air was virtually shattered by Geo-Force's impossibly loud ROAR of agony.

For what seemed like an eternity, the entire cruel tableau continued to unfold, with Aqualad and Bumblebee continuing to maintain their focus and allow their work to continue while Geo-Force continued to unleash his heart wrenching scream of pain. Even in spite of practically forcing themselves to continue, the two metahumans blasting at Geo-Force couldn't help but wince, clench their eyes shut, and mentally stammer, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Cyborg continuously winced, and barely managed to maintain any focus on the screens and scanners he was keeping trained on Geo-Force as they became flooded with nonsensical webs and tangles of electronic lines and beeping. All the other Titans who weren't involved in blasting Geo-Force winced, and even turned away with their eyes closed and teeth gritted to try to block out the sound, except for Beast Boy, who ended up on his knees and leaning himself so that his face was almost touching the ground and still screaming in apparent pain from the noise before eventually turning into a tortoise and practically forcing himself as far into his shell as he could go in a desperate attempt to completely stifle the noise from his ears. Terra, on the other hand, kept her head turned away, her eyes closed, and her teeth gritted as she found herself fighting to keep herself from crying, or worse losing her will for the whole business entirely and screaming and begging for Aqualad and Bumblebee to stop.

Then, after what seemed like an impossibly long time, the impossible to decipher storm of lines and data on Cyborg's scanner screen snapped out of existence and was replaced by a single solid flat red line, and a blaring beep was emitted from the device. Cyborg snapped his head up and around to face Aqualad and Bumblebee, his eyes widened in clear alarm. "STOP! STOP! STOP!" he yelled. At this point, even Bumblebee and Aqualad were all too willing to let the whole torturous business end, and they eagerly shut off their combined attack. The geyser came crashing down and evaporated into mist, and the electricity faded away from existence in a final flash of light, revealing Geo-Force still standing in the exact same position that he'd been in the entire time, but with his eyes closed. And then, with what sounded like a very pained and weakened wheezing hiss appearing to come out of his closed mouth, Geo-Force tipped over forwards and collapsed flat on his face with a thud, a final few bursts and sparks of electricity crackling across his bedraggled back before they to faded away from existence, leaving the geomancer lying face down on the ground, bedraggled, horridly electrocuted, and possibly even dead.

For a solid minute, the Titans, plus Terra all remained standing where they were, gaping intently at Geo-Force with both hope and fear in their eyes. Terra had her hands clenched together in a prayer position and had her head reared up with her eyes closed and teeth gritted as she silently sent rapid fire desperate prayers to the Heavens for her brother to be alive. Beast Boy had even gone so far as to revert back to human form, and was now gaping in shock at the downed geomancer, both feeling extremely alarmed by the fact that he couldn't hear any heartbeat coming from Geo-Force at the current moment even in spite of his enhanced animalistic sense of hearing, yet also hoping like mad that that disturbing bit of evidence would turn out to only be a minor detail and that Geo-Force was in fact still alive.

Eventually, right as Cyborg was on the verge of voicing the heartbreaking thought that he was sure they were all thinking, and Terra seemed on the verge of completely falling apart, a feint electronic beep came from Cyborg's scanner. The eyes of the 11 young heroes widened, and they hurriedly made sure to direct their attention to listening. After another full minute, another feint beep emitted from the machine. "That's . . . that's his heartbeat," said Cyborg. "It's slow, and very weak, but it's there."

The other Titans very audibly exhaled in relief, and Terra clasped her hands together in relief, her eyes shut and letting out streams of joyous tears. "He's alive," she thought to herself.

"Can you scan for the tech?" Beast Boy asked.

All ten of his friends snapped their heads in his direction, all with the same incredulous look on their faces. "Are you crazy!?" Terra practically shrieked.

"We have to make sure!" Beast Boy snapped back.

The other Titans, plus Terra, all looked to Cyborg, who nodded his head, pressed a few keys, and extended his arm with the active scanner back towards Geo-Force once more. The results arrived within seconds, and Cyborg nodded his head with a relieved smile on his face. "We did it guys. The tech's detached itself from his nervous system. He's free, and this time for good."

Terra clasped her hands together again, closed her eyes, and lifted her head up to face the sky. "Thank you, thank you, thank you," she mentally blubbered upwards to the angels that she was sure were listening and had allowed her prayers to be answered.

"He may be alive and free from the mind control," said Raven. "But he's not out of the woods yet." She directed her attention to all 10 of her friends. "If we don't get him some proper medical attention within the immediate future, he could still very well end up dying on us."

"Not if I have anything to say about it."

The Titans all looked at Terra with stunned expressions on their faces from the sound of hearing her practically growl that one little statement, and Terra herself turned to face Titans Tower East, her left fist clenched and seemingly clenching even tighter. As this happened, the walls and layers of stone that still remained in position and continued to keep the 'stem' of the tower encased very noticeably became riddled with cracks. Then Terra emphatically snapped her fingers, and the layers of stone exploded into dust, revealing the now perfectly easy to enter Tower once the dust had cleared.

The Titans had barely any time to react to Terra's practically seconds-long work in removing the encasements from the tower before she bolted over to the front door, and with a growl of rage and effort, practically tore it open. She whipped her head around to face the 10 official Titans members. "Well what are you waiting for?!" she snapped. "Come on! Isn't there a medical bay somewhere in here?!"

These words from Terra were more than enough to snap the Titans out of their dazed state, and Bumblebee nodded. "Out of my way," said the fearless leader of Titans East, and Terra stepped out of the way just long enough for Bumblebee to fly past her and enter the tower. The winged African American girl turned her head to face Terra. "I know the way to get there. Follow me." She flew forward for a few seconds, then stopped and turned her head to face Terra again. "And see what you can do about all that interior decorating your brother subjected this place to while he was under his psychopathic 'master's' mind control while you're at it. It's high time it got taken down, and the last thing any of us need is for it to impede us and get in the way of getting your brother the proper medical attention he needs!"

"You got it boss," said Terra, her right fist clenched and raised, and her face firmly set into a look of determination.

Bumblebee briefly paused both physically and mentally. "I'm not exactly . . ." she thought to herself. Then she forced the thought out of her mind. "Time and place, time and place," she thought to herself. She started flying forward into the tower once again, Terra running along close behind her, ready to take down any of her brother's decorations that happened to end up getting in the way.

Meanwhile, Robin and all the other Titans were working to get Geo-Force off the ground and start carrying him into the tower to get him to the medical bay. "Careful guys," said Robin. "Don't go to fast. We move him too quickly, and the stress on his body could end up finishing the job."

"Don't worry Robin," Raven almost growled as she worked very carefully to telekinetically levitate the unconscious and quite barely alive Geo-Force as slowly and delicately, yet still relatively swiftly, as she could. "I've got this covered."

One by one, all of the remaining Titans, plus Geo-Force managed to enter the tower. All except for Speedy, who paused just a footstep away from entering the tower. Robin, who'd been the last to enter before Speedy, noticed this and turned his head. "Aren't you coming?" Robin asked.

Speedy looked over at Robin. "Yeah sure, I will." He held up his hand and gestured for Robin to continue on ahead without him. "Just uh, give me a minute. There's something I need to take care of real fast." The archer then turned around and ran over to the island edge located directly in front of the front side of the tower. Robin raised his eyebrow in confusion, but then eventually decided that he could worry about whatever Speedy was up to at a later time, and he turned away and dashed down the hall to catch up with the others. Meanwhile, outside the tower, Speedy got down on one knee, lifted up his bow, and cocked and prepared an arrow. "She'd better be watching," he thought to himself. Then he fired.

. . . . .

At the same time this happened, Cheshire was on high alert in a clearing in the forest, watching the sky above the tree line intently. Not too long ago, she had seen what looked like an impossibly bright pillar of what looked like a mixture of lightning and water bursting up into the sky before abruptly fading from existence after what seemed like an eternity. As unbelievable as the sight seemed, she had a feeling that she hadn't been imagining things and that the mysterious anomaly had something to do with what was very likely Geo-Force doing battle with the former captives plus the reinforcements that Speedy had promised her would arrive yesterday to help him.

For what seemed like an eternity, she continued watching the sky, anxiously waiting to see if anything else strange occurred that she would find worth watching. She'd even gone so far as to take off her mask to make sure that there was absolutely nothing that could impede her vision. Then, right as she was practically seconds away from losing patience and turning her head away from the sky, she heard what sounded like a whistle, and saw what she could have sworn looked like an arrow zooming up into the sky. She watched the object intently, making sure not to let it leave her sight. Then the object exploded into a fiery blast, and Cheshire instinctively knew that she'd been correct in her guess about what the object was. "That was definitely one of his arrows," she thought to herself. "There's nothing else it could have possibly been."

Then she saw another arrow zoom up into the air and explode, then another, and another, and another. Before long, an entire storm of arrows was being sent rocketing up into the sky and exploding into so many fiery blasts that that particular area of the sky seemed to be dark with fire in a makeshift fireworks display. And in that instant, without even being entirely certain how she knew, she knew deep down within her that what she was currently seeing in the sky that very moment was the signal that Speedy had promised to send to her in the event that he successfully escaped and Geo-Force was successfully taken down.

She clasped her hands together in an apparent prayer position, her green eyes seemingly now on the verge of joyous tears, and she continued to look at the makeshift fireworks display going on in the sky. "Speedy," she thought to herself. "Thank you. Thank you so much. I promise you this, somehow or other, I will find a way to respond and allow you the chance to talk things out and tell me everything that happened. And when that happens, I promise, I will take you up on your offer to be your personal eyes and ears on my boss's activities. You have earned that right. You have more than earned that right." And in that instant, she felt a warm fire building up in her heart as she realized that she genuinely intended to keep her word. Smile still on her face, she calmly slipped her mask back on, and then dashed off deeper into the woods to find someplace where she could think and come up with a way to respond to the archer that she was now intent on fulfilling her word to. As she herself had mentally said, he had more than earned that right.

 **And just like that, I give you the epic penultimate chapter for Geo-Force! And boy am I hoping like mad that you all enjoyed this little masterpiece I crafted here! And that being said, I sure as heck better receive at least ONE review for this chapter! You hear me? I do not, and I mean DO NOT, want to end up receiving zero feedback whatsoever after all the hard work I put into writing and posting the darn thing! Got that?! You hear me?! You sure as heck better! (And I apologize now in advance if I give any of you guys the wrong idea with all this) And on another, less potentially nerve wracking note, I might as well mention to you a little trivia. That girl that Geo-Force mentioned being extra close (hint . . . hint . . . not to mention being in 'with a capital L' love with) his brother Gregor, Ilona? She's actually a character in the comics just like Gregor, Bryan/Geo-Force, and Tara/Terra. In fact, she and Gregor Markov actually married in the DC comics universe (and had a son together named Gregor Markov II! XD). Just thought I'd let you know how much I'm showing my work and being willing to really look into info on the comics for the sake of these stories. That being said, again, I hope you all enjoyed this epic new chapter and that you leave plenty of reviews! Believe me, as far as I can tell, I have more than earned that right ^_^**

 **Coming up Next (but ONLY if I successfully receive at least ONE review for this chapter by the time I've got this next bit ready): With Geo-Force now free once and for all from his 'master's' mind control and the entire mess taken care of, the master, plus Vandal Savage make alterations in the plans for the immediate future. Meanwhile, back in the area where all the heroic people we care about are, Geo-Force decides to leave Steel City to both return back to Markovia and let everyone there (plus the rest of the world, and the League) know that he's alright and about what's happened and where he's been, as well as to answer for the crimes he unwillingly committed while under the mind control. And even as all that gets taken care of, Terra's final fate in regard to what she should now do after everything that's happened is finally decided, the Jump City Titans set off to return to Jump City, and the epic 2nd episode of A-LionGleek's 6th season of Teen Titans comes to an end.**


	19. Epilogue

**Hey everyone! Guess what!? At this time, I now present to you, the epilogue for Geo-Force! And boy am I hoping that you guys enjoy it just as much as you've enjoyed the entirety of this story that I've posted before now! Believe me, I do. And of course, it would be very wise indeed for you all to leave reviews (especially if you're a guest); but no flames allowed under any circumstances. And in this grand finale for the 2nd episode of the epic A-LionGleek Teen Titans Season 6, the mysterious villain responsible for orchestrating the entire mess in the first place finds himself forced to strategically alter his plans in the face of the jarring wrench that has now been thrown in with Geo-Force's being released from his control, Geo-Force makes plans for the future in regard to what must now be done in light of his recent actions, Terra's fate is finally decided, and the Jump City Titans make plans of their own before finally heading home. With all that in mind, here's to once again hoping you read, review, and enjoy!**

 **A/N: But first, (for the final time in regard to this specific 'episode') I shall remind you once more that I do not own Teen Titans or anything else DC-based. Got that? Good. And with that, I give you the epilogue of Geo-Force.**

 **Epilogue:**

"THEY'VE DONE WHAT?!"

On the misty 'screen' hovering above the small underground spring that was currently serving as a medium for a scrying message, Cheshire winced at the sound of her master's angry shout. "I am again sorry that I am telling you this news," said Cheshire. "But as of yesterday, it would appear that Geo-Force has been set free from your control."

The cloaked figure growled, his dark red eyes starting to ominously start slowly taking on a brighter shade. It was currently 9:00 pm., Friday evening in New York time, and he had been planning to finally drop by Steel City to meet back up with Cheshire and the geomancer as well as adding his brand new recruits to his forces the very next day. But now, as he'd just had to learn from Cheshire in the scrying message that she'd deemed necessary to send to him at this moment, through some means or other, the Atlantean and the Jump City Titans had managed to somehow both break the captive members of Steel City's local heroes free from captivity _and_ set Geo-Force himself free from the mind control he'd had him placed under to get him to work for him in the first place.

The cloaked figure leaned forwards, his red eyes now glowing dangerously bright. "How did this happen?!" he roared.

Cheshire winced, then took a deep breath, exhaled, and looked as calmly as she could at her now quite angry boss. "They managed to find a way to get around his natural immunity to electricity, and take advantage of this loophole to shut down the technology."

The master's eyes narrowed. "And what might this loophole be?"

Cheshire took another deep breath, and then exhaled. "Apparently, if exposed to water while simultaneously being exposed to active electricity, a geomancer is perfectly capable of being electrocuted, and actually being even more strongly affected than a dry civilian would be. Needless to say, over the course of their battle against him, the Titans got desperate, and the insect and fish managed to blast him at the same time with their respective blasting attacks, and in the process set him free." She hung her head. "And from what I managed to overhear over the course of the whole mess, it appeared that they'd become aware of the Kragon being subjected to the same tech and set free from it through their electrocution of it earlier, and through that been in the know about how it could potentially allow for the same results to occur with Geo-Force."

The cloaked figure snarled in rage at the confirmation of how the fate of the monster he'd sent after Aqualad in a failsafe effort to keep him from blowing the whistle to the Jump City Titans in the first place had indeed ended up contributing to the current derailment of the newest conjoined plan of him and his master. Then his eyes narrowed as he noticed one tiny detail in regard to what Cheshire had said. "Wait a minute," he growled. "Weren't you there with him? Why didn't you stop this?!"

Cheshire winced, and hung her head. "Forgive me master," she said. "For I have failed you."

Her boss raised his eyebrow underneath his cowl, the only sign of it that could be seen from outside the cowl being the slight movement of the eye in question. "Do clarify."

Cheshire lifted her head. "Yesterday evening, after a brief visit to check on the prisoners, I . . . I noticed that I was starting to feel cramped and bored and . . . a little too confined and restrained myself." She hung her head once more. "I . . . I needed some air, and some time to let loose. Honestly, at that particular point, I have a feeling I would have gone mad if I'd had to spend another hour inside the tower, especially in the condition it was in following Geo-Force's redecorating." She lifted her head back up. "So I thought it wouldn't hurt if I were to take a leave of absence for a couple days or so to get myself recharged and acquire some much needed fresh air, and that Geo-Force would be more than capable of handling things himself while I was gone."

Cheshire wringed her hands together, her fingers intertwining. "But in the end, as I later discovered after hearing the noises of the battle from deep within the forest and rushing over to the closest vantage point I could find, the Atlantean and the Jump City Titans, plus Geo-Force's sister were able to break into the tower, rescue the captives, and both overwhelm Geo-Force and set him free from your control." She hung her head once more. "Forgive me master. It would appear that for once, I have let myself get careless, and in the process pulled a Savage."

The master growled, his eyes narrowing in anger. Then he closed his eyes, took a series of deep breathes, and calmed himself down. Now was not the time to lose his temper and let anger cloud his mind. He knew better than that. After another minute, he directed his attention back to the still seemingly quite nervous looking Cheshire. "Fear not," said the cloaked figure. "Sometimes even the best of us have their moments of carelessness. And besides, this is only your offense in that regard. Plus, as inconvenient as this whole mess is, it still yet has the chance to serve as but a minor setback in later times. So fear not; this matter can be easily forgiven in the current context."

Cheshire very audibly exhaled in relief, and gave her master a bow in a style much like the kind often used by the Japanese and Chinese. "Thank you master. Thank you. I cannot repay you enough for this gratitude."

"Think nothing of it," the master responded in a firm, but kind, tone. "But nonetheless, please do try to be a bit more careful in the future. I am giving you a 2nd chance, and I may yet give you a 3rd chance if necessary depending on my mood and the circumstances. But even so, I'd advise for you to not push your luck."

"Understood."

"Splendid." The cloaked figure folded his arms across his chest. "And as inconvenient this information is for me to hear, thank you nonetheless for informing me of this unfortunate setback. Unpleasant or not, this news was indeed something that I would find quite worth being made aware of. And for that, I thank you."

"You're welcome master," said Cheshire.

The master nodded. "And on another note," he continued. "While we're at it, is there anything else that you are aware of that I might find worth knowing about? Best I be safe than sorry."

Cheshire thought to herself, and then nodded. "Yes, now that you mention it, there is something else of equal importance that I'd best tell you about now." The masked girl took a deep breath, exhaled, and then looked back at her master's hooded face. "As of this afternoon, it would appear that Geo-Force's sister has managed to regain her old abilities."

The cloaked figure's eyes widened at the sound of this news. "You are certain of this?" he asked.

Cheshire nodded. "Affirmative. Saw it with my own eyes."

The cloaked figure mentally cursed. "This just keeps getting better and better," he thought to himself sarcastically. "Any idea as to how this managed to happen?"

Cheshire nodded once again. "I can't entirely guarantee I have the exact details right," she admitted. "But here's what I was best able to gather." She took a deep breath, and then exhaled. In reality, she did indeed know the full details thanks to having managed to meet up discreetly with Speedy in the forest earlier that evening and get the full story from him there before then ending the meeting with a discussion of her work as his new spy. But of course, she had to be careful that she stayed in character around her master and didn't give the whole business away.

She looked her master in the eyes. "Apparently, over the course of their time together these last few days, combined with some past history together from before she worked with Slade, Geo-Force's sister ended up falling for the Atlantean, and the Atlantean in return fell for her as well." Cheshire took another deep breath. "And at one point, over the course of the battle, Geo-Force had managed to seemingly take out all the other combatants, and had the Atlantean in the midst of especially grave peril, and was quite willing to kill him to in his anger." The cloaked figure's eyes narrowed, but he wisely chose not to interrupt.

"And just for the sake of trying to be extra cruel," Cheshire continued, "plus having managed to figure it out himself, he bragged and revealed the entire nature of how they felt for each other right to their faces. And then, right after Geo-Force stopped bragging and finally decided the time was right to finish the job, my guess is that, in combination with all the time she'd spent exposing herself to the Titans and allowing her memories to fully reawaken, the sight of the Atlantean, the one she loved, in such great peril must have been the final stimulus to trigger the complete reawakening of her dormant powers." She closed her eyes and nodded her head. "As far as I can tell, that's the best I know about what happened."

The cloaked figure nodded in understanding. "Intriguing. Disheartening admittedly, but still likewise intriguing." He closed his eyes and nodded his head once more. "Very well, thank you once again. This new information is likewise just as valuable as the news you gave me earlier in this conversation."

"You're welcome master," said Cheshire with a bow. "I'm happy to help." She straightened back up to full height. "What should I do now?"

"For now, remain hidden in the forest. At this point, as you've made quite clear, going back to Titans Tower East and attempting to retake it and Geo-Force would be an exercise in futility."

Cheshire raised her eyebrow underneath her mask. "Couldn't I just . . .?"

"No," said the cloaked figure. "You know perfectly well how much light that teleportation crystal you used to reach Steel City gives off when used. Too conspicuous. The Titans could very well be watching and searching for you. And depending on just how close they might be in the event that they catch you using it, you could end up accidentally leading them right to me by allowing them the chance to catch you right as you're about to teleport. No, too risky. I shall have an extraction arranged for you tomorrow morning at the earliest, but until then, stay hidden in the forest."

Cheshire thought to herself. "Very well master. I shall await my extraction."

"Good, signing off."

The cloaked figure shut off the scrying message. Then he sighed.

"Well that went nicely."

The cloaked figure turned his head to look behind him, and saw Vandal Savage still sitting exactly where he'd been positioned when the scrying message had first come through. "Still though," said Savage. "Your response to her 'pulled a savage' remark? Was that really necessary?"

The cloaked figure rolled his red eyes dismissively. "Well for starters, in regard to your most recent work, it was a pretty accurate description for Cheshire to use. And even so, I can't show favoritism."

Savage thought to himself. "Fair enough," said the caveman. He looked back at his heavily cloaked superior. "I'm sure this is probably a stupid question, but I presume this would mean . . ."

"Indeed," said the cloaked figure. He turned to face the spring once more. "At this point, much like I said to Cheshire, it would be a waste of both time and effort to make my planned visit to Steel City. With the captives free, both the East and West divisions of the Titans united, and Geo-Force now released from my control and back to their side, not to mention the fact that Geo-Force's sister has reawakened her own powers and is likewise still present, I no longer have any reason to visit, let alone to expect any successful chances at recruiting anyone or subjugating anything at this point." He nodded his head. "Yes, as of now, the wisest choice of action is to make a strategic retreat and put active work on this plan on hold for the time being." He turned around to face Savage. "And that being said, I will indeed make sure to have Cheshire extracted from the Steel City area and allow her to join back up with us tomorrow morning at the earliest, but aside from that, for now it's best we lay low."

Savage raised his eyebrow. "So basically, you're saying we're just gonna lie around and do nothing? Give up?"

"I didn't say we'd be lazing around doing nothing," snarled the cloaked figure, his red eyes narrowing. "I said that we would lay low."

The look on his superior's eyes was more than enough to get Savage to shut up. Earlier in his partnership, if you could call it that, with this being, he wouldn't have been so quick to back down. But over the past few days, he'd learned that it would be quite unhealthily unwise to mess around where this being was involved.

The cloaked figure snarled, rolled his eyes, then turned his head to face a small tunnel leading down towards where he'd set up a makeshift laboratory. That same laboratory had been where he'd both created the Kragon, and subjected it and Geo-Force to his mind control technology. Now, it would serve another purpose, but one still somewhat related to his plans. "The recent events that Cheshire has informed me of may have now currently placed the preparation of one his Malevolence's higher stakes failsafe plots on hold. But it has not by any means been outright stopped altogether." He clasped the tips of his sleeves together in a clear display of intertwining his fingers that were hidden within the sleeves. "The Titans may have foiled my current efforts at expanding my army, but this will yet prove but a minor inconvenience in the long run. With the events of today, they have robbed me of but a tiny piece of a much larger puzzle."

The figure lifted up his cowled head, his eyes seemingly staring upwards towards the ceiling of the cave. "I will admit, I set my sights a little too high by subjecting Geo-Force into forced recruitment and attempting to have him do the same to other recognized official superheroes." He looked back at Savage. "As has been very clearly demonstrated over the last few days, such clear attacks against such well known targets only draws the attention of others, and with the more brethren that get involved on behalf of their fellow heroes, the more likely and potentially inevitable it will be for being overwhelmed and what little heroes I do manage to forcibly recruit being rescued and set free."

The cloaked figure nodded his head. "No, next time I make an effort at finding recruits to join my cause alongside you and Cheshire, I shall be setting my sights lower, towards beings who would be far more likely to willingly join our cause. In other words, I believe the wiser starting point at recruiting soldiers for my army would be to extend invitations to those among the ranks of those who are already recognized as villains."

Savage thought to himself, and then nodded, seeing the sense in what his superior had said. "I can definitely see the sense in that," he agreed. "Still, you'd need the luck of his Malevolence and possibly higher than that to get good ol' Deathstroke to join up with you. As myself and even his Malevolence to a slight extent can attest quite well, he's proven quite resistant to teaming up with other villains on a basis in which he's not playing the dominant role after his experiences with his Malevolence's Azarathian rival."

"I am quite aware of that Savage," said the cloaked figure. "I do work for his Malevolence remember?" He took a deep breath, then exhaled. "And besides, for now I need not worry about that little matter. I don't currently have any intention just yet of attempting to recruit Slade."

Savage nodded, then raised his eyebrow. "Are you saying you may have plans to attempt recruiting him at a later date?"

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't," responded the shadowy villain. "But regardless, such a matter is not at all of any immediate concern to you in the slightest." He turned his head to face the tunnel leading to his lab once more. "No, when the proper time comes for me to start actively searching for recruits once more, I shall start with somewhat less worrisome villains. Then, as I slowly began to acquire more recruits from that direction, I shall gradually work my way up to higher ranking, more iconic, and more well-known beings among the world's recognized roster of supervillains." He turned his entire body so that it was aligned in the same direction as his head. "But even that can wait for now . . . I'd say till about this coming January next year at the latest." He then nodded his head, stared intently at the entrance to the cavern corridor leading to his lab, and started walking towards it. "But for now, I might as well take advantage of my newly begun time of laying low to work on setting up something else that may yet prove just as helpful even further down the line then when I start searching for active villains to recruit."

Savage raised his eyebrow. "Don't you need to sleep?"

"Your concern is appreciated," said the cloaked figure. "But fear not, I won't spend too long in my lab tonight. Come 10:00 this evening, and I will indeed be bedding down for the night. Starting tomorrow, I shall devote considerably more time in my laboratory."

"What about me?"

Savage's superior paused, then appeared to position his head as if thinking on the matter. "For now, feel free to rest when you deem it appropriate. But starting tomorrow, I'd recommend you put in a few more hours or days in continuing to train and make sure your skills are still well honed. As I'm sure your fiasco with the Devil's Gate two months ago made quite clear, you can never be too careful."

Savage nodded, seeing the point in what his superior had suggested. "And after that?"

The cloaked figure thought to himself again. Then he turned around to face Savage, his left arm raised as if holding up his index finger, and his eyes widened as if he'd just had an idea. He walked up to Savage. "You know what? Now that I think about it, I know just the thing for you to do after we've both deemed you to have spent enough time training and likewise out of immediate action." He looked over towards the tunnel leading to the outside of the cave they were using as their headquarters, then back at Savage. "I'm sure you are aware of how Batman, Superman, the rest of the Justice League, and practically every other adult Superhero, team affiliated or otherwise, virtually never get involved with matters involving the Titans. Am I right?"

Savage nodded his head. "Indeed I am aware of that master. Granted, there are times I can name in which they are busy with other important stuff requiring their attention, but even at times in which they could indeed take the time to get involved with the Titans, they never take advantage of such an opportunity."

"Exactly." The cloaked figure placed the tip of his right sleeve against Savage's chest, and the immortal caveman could clearly feel the tip of something sharp within the sleeve pressing against his chest in the area the sleeve was touching. "But as they all say," said the mysterious cowled villain, "you can never be too careful. And that being said, I believe you'd be quite well suited to making sure that the adult superheroes, and especially the Justice League members, stay that way."

Savage raised his eyebrow. "Clarify," he stated firmly, but politely.

His superior chuckled. "What I ask is quite simple Savage. I'm suggesting that for now you let me, Cheshire, his Malevolence, and all the villains that already personally deal with the Titans worry about them. And instead, you get back into action by putting more focus on dealing with the Justice League like you used to before you partnered up with Slade earlier this year. And if not them, perhaps other adult super heroes, or maybe even your old friend the Immortal Man." He spread his arms out to his sides. "As isolated as they keep themselves from the Titans, I don't see any harm in you working to actively make sure they continue to stay out of matters involving the Titans and potentially putting an even bigger spanner in the works then the Titans themselves are already capable of, don't you think?"

Savage thought to himself, and then nodded, a small grin coming on his face. "I'll admit, when you put it that way, I certainly see the appeal." Then his grin became a questioning frown. "But let me ask you this," said Savage, turning his head to look back at his superior. "I'm sure you are quite aware of all the other villains out there among my fellow members of this universe's collective rogues' gallery that already keep the Justice League and other adult superheroes quite busy. Surely they'll be reason enough not to worry about the Titans getting direct assistance from their elder fellow heroes?"

"A fair point," the cloaked figure. Then he looked directly back at Savage, his eyes showing a gleam that Savage was almost certain indicated a massive grin on the hidden face under the cowl. "But even so, last time I recall, you want to rule the world. And while it is perfectly reasonable to accept help from your allies and let them do some of the harder tasks for you, to let others do all the hard work and fighting every time? Could you possibly think of a more dictionary worthy example of signs of weakness on a king's part? Surely you don't want to be a weak ruler? Do you?"

Savage snarled. "Don't be ridiculous! Of course not!"

"Then prove it," the master responded firmly, but kindly. "Go out into the world. Prove that you are capable of fighting your own battles and being the strong king you want to be. Take your hand in doing battle with the Immortal Man, the Justice League, and other adult heroes like you used to." The master's eyes took on their grin indicative look once more. "From what my Malevolence and I remember, your battles against those opponents, especially against the Immortal Man and the Justice League, should be perfectly familiar waters for you. After all, as I'm sure even you yourself are quite aware of and remember, in all your battles against the Immortal Man and the Justice League, you actually proved yourself quite the capable, competent, and credible threat. Nothing at all like the weak and incompetent fool you made yourself look against the Titans two months ago."

Savage found a wide grin coming on his face, for even the reminder of his foolishness and carelessness that had earned him a considerably humiliating defeat against the Titans then he'd ever before had in his life wasn't enough to insult him when he had his proud memories of his encounters against the Justice League and his eternal sworn enemy the Immortal Man to compare against that one little bit of shame. "You can certainly say that again."

"Indeed," said the cloaked figure. He pointed his right arm in the direction of the tunnel leading to the outside of the cave. "And that being said, for now only myself, Cheshire, and his Malevolence are aware of how very ignominiously you failed against the Titans two months ago. But that could all still change at a later date. And surely you don't want them to start mocking you and openly dismissing your past achievements and prouder moments over just one little shameful screw up do you?"

Savage growled in a mixture of anger and determination. "No."

"Then you know exactly what you must do," said the cloaked figure. "As soon as you've spent just another couple days here training and making sure your skills are still at the level they should be, return to your old stomping grounds. Jump back into your old game. Show your old enemies and the rest of the world's rogues that you're still capable of being the legitimate threat that they remember you as."

Savage thought to himself, finding himself quite happy and sentimental as he thought of the glorious days from before he'd partnered up with Slade and started working more directly with Lucifer, or even from before his humiliating epic fail with his ill-fated and deliberately sabotaged from the start Tartarus organization. He grinned proudly at the cloaked figure before him. "With pleasure."

. . . . .

Robin and the other founding members of the Titans stood calmly and happily on the sandy shore directly in front of the Titans East Tower, watching the bright sky and crystal clear ocean water. It had now been 2 full days since the epic final showdown in which they'd managed to rescue Titans East and set Geo-Force free from the mind control, and it was now 9:00 am Monday morning. For the past couple days, they'd remained at Titans Tower East to both help to make sure things were set back in good order and to keep watch just to check to see if the 'master' that Geo-Force had been unwillingly drafted into working for still chose to pay a visit to Steel City anyway, as well as to keep a good eye on Geo-Force, who had thankfully managed to undergo a full recovery and now appeared to be perfectly healthy and happy.

Robin found a smile coming on his face as he thought of everything that had happened over the last few days. Granted, things had been far from perfect, and there'd been plenty of pitfalls, hang ups, and bumps in the road the entire time. But in the end, he had to admit, things could have ended up much worse off than they were now. "All in all," he thought to himself. "Another day saved, and another mission accomplished."

"It seems such a beautiful day, does it not my friends?"

Robin chuckled, and turned his head to look at Starfire. "You can say that again Star." He turned his head to look ahead once more. "Looks like another beautiful day today."

"True that," Cyborg agreed. Beast Boy chuckled in agreement, complete with a toothy smile showing his fangs.

"Yeah sure," said Raven.

Robin rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless. Only Raven could make a comment of that nature without ruining the mood.

Then Raven looked over at Beast Boy. "You know," said Raven. "Color me suspicious, but I've noticed you've been rather quiet for the most part lately." The other Titans directed their attention to Beast Boy as well. Now that Raven had brought it up, they couldn't help but wonder whether or not there was any reason behind Beast Boy's current state of mood.

Beast Boy nodded and shrugged nonchalantly. "So I have," he responded. "I may not be that way often, but that certainly doesn't mean I'm not capable of being quiet." He turned his head to face his friends. "Is there a problem?"

"No," said Raven. "Still, considering how rarely you're ever quiet like this, especially over long periods of time such as now, we just had to make sure that you were ok. Especially in light of . . . well . . ."

Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg looked each other in the eyes with a half nervous and half awkward look on their faces. They all had a feeling about just what Raven was now thinking about.

Apparently, so did Beast Boy. "Go ahead and say it Raven. We all know what you're thinking about."

Raven sighed, closed her eyes, and nodded her head. "Terra," she then said. Her eyes opened. "I've noticed she and Aqualad have gotten quite . . . close . . . in recent times."

Beast Boy nodded, his eyes closed in agreement. "So they have."

"And you're ok with that?" Raven asked.

Beast Boy sighed. "Three years ago, maybe I would have had a problem with that." He directed his attention back to his four fellow founders. "But now, too much has changed for me to be bothered by that anymore. Sure Terra and I had plenty of fun back then, but those days are over. Like it or not, I've moved on, and so has Terra. And judging from her current coziness with Aqualad, I'd say she's moved on quite a lot further then I have." He sighed again. "But even so, I don't mind. She's gone through enough; quite frankly so have we all. If Aqualad is what it takes for her to be happy, then I'm certainly not gonna complain. Trust me, I'm just as happy for them as you guys or anybody else is, and I still have plenty of hope to hold on to for the possibility that someday I'll get a happy ending of my own. And even if I don't have such a fate in store," he gestured his hand towards the tower, "I'm certainly not gonna begrudge others of theirs."

The shapeshifter folded his arms across his chest. "Besides, far as I can see it, life's too short to stress out over 'what ifs' and 'might have beens'. Sometimes, hard to swallow as it may be, it's better to just let go of the past, live for the now, and keep your eyes ahead for the future. And if the future entails Fish Boy and Terra being together and me being somewhere else in the equation, then so be it."

"If you say so Beast Boy," said Robin. Cyborg chuckled, and Raven let a small smirk come on her face. Even Robin found a small smile come on his face as he then heard Starfire giggle. But then the Boy Wonder's smile faded, and he turned his head briefly to the side.

Starfire noticed this. "Is something wrong Robin?"

Her boyfriend sighed, and turned around to face his friends once more. "Now that you mention it Beast Boy, you're right. Sometimes life is too short. Especially more so for some compared to others."

The other Titans raised their eyebrows. "What do you mean?" Cyborg asked.

Robin sighed again, then turned around to look towards the sun and ocean again. "When we get back to Jump City, I'm all for letting us have a chance to rest for the entire rest of this week if necessary. But after that, I think it might very well be about high time I let you guys divert some of your focus back to that little side project of yours."

Those last few words were enough to cause the eyes of all four of Robin's fellow founders to widen. They knew all too well what their fearless leader meant by those particular words. "Robin," said Starfire. "You are certain of this."

"Sadly, yes." Robin turned his head to face Starfire. "Believe me Star, I don't like bringing up this matter anymore than you do. But after everything that's happened the last few days, I can't help but feel that perhaps maybe it's time to stop procrastinating. Don't get me wrong, we can still rest up a couple days or so from this last adventure if we really need to. But aside from that, I say it's time you guys hit the books for a while."

The other Titans thought to themselves, then nodded as one, sighing in the process. "If you say so," said Raven.

"What did we miss?"

The Titans turned around just in time to see Terra and all five members of Titans East standing nearby. Speedy, in particular, had a cheeky grin on his face, thus practically confirming (as if the sound of his voice hadn't been enough) that he had been the one who'd spoken.

Robin sighed, rolled his eyes, and directed a deadpan glare at the archer. "Nothing," said Robin. "Just a little talk to my friends about a little side project they're working on."

"By side project, I presume you're referring to your fellow founders' efforts at getting you out of fulfilling your part in that little business deal you made two months ago."

Robin's deadpan look became even darker upon hearing Aqualad say this. "Seriously?" Robin asked. "A business deal? That's what you choose to refer to it as?"

"Well it's either that or risk possibly going flat out mad from the enormity of just what it is you've gotten yourself involved in, and just how much is on the line as a result."

Robin thought to himself, then nodded, realizing the logic in the Atlantean's reply. "Fair enough," the Boy Wonder admitted.

Terra walked up to the young caped crusader, placing her hand on his shoulder in a gesture of comfort. "I can't say for certain this will help, but I really am sorry that you have to go through something like that."

Robin sighed. "It's fine Terra." He looked back at the redeemed former Titan, a nervous smile on his face. "Painful as it may be, if I could go back and repeat the experience from two months ago, I'd still do exactly the same. But nonetheless, I appreciate the sentiment."

Terra nodded, a weak smile on her own face. "You're welcome." The other members of Titans East likewise nodded their heads in agreement.

"I trust things are alright?"

Terra and the Titans turned their heads in time to see Geo-Force standing not too far away. Terra smiled at the sight of her brother. "You could say that."

Geo-Force nodded. "That is comforting to hear." He turned his head to face the horizon in front of his sister and her friends. "I must admit, with my mind no longer clouded by the presence of that mind control techno sorcery, I have been able to truly appreciate the beauty of this country and how very different it is from Markovia." He hung his head. "I can only wish that Markovia were more like this country and others that share a similar geopolitical standpoint."

"Hey, if this is about the stuff you said against Markovia and our family, don't feel bad," said Terra. "You weren't yourself when you said it. And I'm certainly not gonna hold any of that against you, let alone any of your other words or actions from that time."

"That may be true," said Geo-Force. "But even with that in mind, I wasn't entirely incorrect when I spoke those words either. And I do remember being awake for the majority of those words." He looked back towards the horizon. "And on a similar note, there is actually one considerably more important reason for my currently having come outside to speak to you all."

Terra and the Titans all directed their full attention towards the former unwilling villain. "We're listening," said Robin.

Geo-Force sighed, turned his head to face the 11 younger heroes. "As I'm sure you are aware, I have fully recovered from my experiences with the mind control. And I am also quite certain that things are virtually back in order?"

The Titans nodded, as did Terra.

Geo-Force nodded back, then took a deep breath. "In that case," he looked back towards the horizon. "I believe it is time for me to say goodbye."

Terra's eyes widened. "Goodbye? What do you mean?"

Geo-Force sighed, and turned his head to face his sister. "I understand how you feel dear sister. I wish just as much as you that I could spend another day or more in your company. But now, there is a great deal that I must do now that I am free, and I believe that it would be wiser for me to accept what little time I've had to recuperate I've managed to get and have these tasks taken care of in the very near future."

The elder geomancer reached into one of the pockets in his belt, and drew out what appeared to be a rolled up scroll of white paper. He unrolled it and let the Titans and his sister take a good look at what was portrayed on it. The paper in question, was in fact a multi-page document with the entirety of the news article detailing the news of his sudden disappearance from Markovia printed upon it. "For starters, it is of the highest importance that I return to Markovia and inform its inhabitants, and especially our family and the rest of the members of the effective governing counsel, that I am alright, where I have been, and whatever else is deemed necessary for me to tell." He placed the newspaper document back in his belt.

"I must also inform the league of what has happened," Geo-Force continued. "However much they already know, and however far across the world the news may have already spread, it is best that they be allowed to hear the story from my own mouth rather than have them be content only with what little or great an amount of information may have already been revealed through other means." He then lifted his head back up. "And furthermore, I must answer for the crimes I committed while under the influence of the villain who captured me that I reportedly referred to as master during my unwilling time in his servitude, perhaps even stand trial."

The eyes of all 11 of the younger heroes widened at the news. Terra, however, was the most surprised by the information. "They can't make you do that!" she yelled. "They can't! That's not fair! None of that stuff was even truly your fault! You weren't yourself!"

"I understand that perfectly well." Geo-Force hung his head. "But nonetheless, I must answer for the actions committed by . . . my more villainous self." He looked back at Terra. "Willing or not, I still committed those actions. And not only were those actions criminal in nature, but they also included assault and near murder of fellow superheroes. Not to mention, they also qualify as an international incident."

Terra hung her head, for she knew that her brother was right. But that certainly didn't mean she had to like it.

"And besides," Geo-Force continued. "Even though there is a greater share of blame that lies with the one who captured me and caused me to commit those crimes under his control, the fact that he is unavailable for trying and questioning means that someone needs to step forward to receive justice in his place. And until such time as the true villain responsible is available, I am the closest being available to answer for the trouble that has unfolded because of him." He looked back at Terra and the Titans. "But even with all that in mind, and as unfair as the entire business is, there is no reason to give up hope. As we all know perfectly well, I was indeed under the influence of mind control while committing those actions. And my testimony provided under my own free will and without mind control pulling my strings, plus the availability of this key piece of evidence. . ."

He reached into a different compartment of his belt and pulled out a sealed test tube containing what appeared to be a coil of string paralyzed within some sort of suspended animation liquid. Upon closer inspection, the string was distinctively recognizable as a connected string of some of the mind control nanotech-probes that had been present within the geomancer. Geo-Force looked over at Cyborg. "As I recall, the rest of this tech still currently inside me will dissolve harmlessly into my bloodstream over time and eventually exit my system altogether. Correct?"

Cyborg nodded his head. "Correct."

"That is good." Geo-Force slipped the vial containing the suspended animated string of mind control nanotech back into his belt. "Like I was saying, my testimony, combined with this irrefutable piece of evidence, not to mention the copies you provided of the images acquired from the scans you subjected me to while the tech was still active and attached to my nervous system, should be more than enough to allow me to either leave free of charges or at least be given a relatively minor punishment. In fact, such a result will be virtually guaranteed now provided the officials involved have brains, our father is as merciful and just as usual, and Gregor has enough humanity in him to know the difference between true justice and outright dictatorship."

Geo-Force straightened up to full height, placing his hands on his hips and allowing a small smile to come on his face. "But regardless of what happens, know that I am thankful for you being able to rescue me, honored to have gotten to know such valiant young heroes as you, and truly thankful to have finally seen you again after all these years apart Tara."

Terra blushed, and hung her head. "Yeah, about that," she looked back up. "I'm sorry about my choosing to stay here instead of . . . you know . . ."

"No worries." Geo-Force smiled. "I understand perfectly. Markovia may be where you were born, and you may have spent the majority of your childhood there with me. But America's your home now." He gestured towards the other 10 young heroes gathered around behind his sister. "And these valiant young heroes you've befriended are just as much your family now as I am. Over just these last few days alone, combined with what I was able to be awake for while mind controlled and what little I was able to hear about of your time before your petrification while still in Markovia, I've seen you happier and more content with your life then I'd ever before seen you throughout the entirety of the time we had together in Markovia. And after all you've been through in life up till now, you truly deserve the right to such happiness."

Terra smiled, her eyes on the verge of tears of joy. "Thank you Bryan."

Geo-Force smiled. "You're welcome Tara. I'll say it again, it has truly been a pleasure, an honor, and a great joy to have finally seen you again after all this time. And I couldn't feel more proud now to call you my sister and to know that you now serve the ranks of the world's superheroes just as valiantly now as I."

The elder geomancer turned around, lifted his left hand as if about to summon a flying rock, and then paused. After about a minute of pause, Geo-Force turned around. "Actually, there's one more thing I might as well bring up before I leave." He looked over at Aqualad, pointed at him, and then beckoned. "If you may?"

Aqualad gulped, and looked at both his fellow Titans East members and the founders of his entire extended team with a partially nervous look on his face. From the look he'd managed to see on Geo-Force's face, he had a feeling just what it was that the elder geomancer wanted to talk about. The other Titans all shook their head, and pointed at Geo-Force in a clear silent request for the Atlantean to go ahead and talk to the geomancer, a small smirk on all their faces. Terra raised her eyebrow, now clearly confused. Aqualad sighed, seeing that he was going to have to go through with what currently appeared to be coming, whether he liked the sound of it or not. Taking a deep breath, he turned to face Geo-Force, exhaled, and walked on over to the elder geomancer.

Geo-Force took a deep breath, exhaled, and then directed a firm, yet kind, facial expression towards the Atlantean. "I remember being awake two days ago at the moment in which my villainous persona managed to take notice of and openly speak quite loudly about the strong romantic attraction and mutual infatuation that has managed to take form between you and my sister."

Aqualad mentally tensed up. His suspicions had just now been proven correct.

"I have also noticed how it has only continued to strengthen and develop into genuine love over the last two days following my rescue."

Aqualad nodded. "Indeed correct."

Geo-Force nodded to himself, clearly not surprised. Then he placed his right hand on Aqualad's left shoulder. "At this time, you should have no reason to worry," Geo-Force said to the still somewhat nervous Atlantean. "One thing that my more villainous self did manage to get correct was that I am indeed quite proud and happy about this detail. And I am more than happy to accept such a bond between you and my sister. I may be a prince, but to me it matters not that you are from Atlantis and she is half Markovian, nor that her biological father is a king while you have a somewhat more common background. My sister loves you, and you share that same feeling. And that's good enough for me."

Aqualad couldn't help but smile upon hearing this. Terra also found a warm smile coming on her face, clasping her hands together in a clear gesture of happiness.

Then Geo-Force leaned his face slightly closer towards Aqualad, and his eyes narrowed into a somewhat sterner expression. "But I'm warning you now," said the elder geomancer, "and I will only tell you this once, so you'd best listen carefully."

Aqualad gulped. "Here it comes," he thought to himself.

"As accepting as I may be of you being romantically linked with my sister, I am still her brother. And I may have missed out on playing this role during her brief tryst with your friend the shapeshifter, but this time I will not let the opportunity to properly serve this time honored role slip from my fingers." He looked over at Terra, then back at Aqualad. "That being said," he pressed his finger against the Atlantean's chest. "I am warning you now, that you must take the absolute best of care of my sister. And I do mean the best."

He pointed at Terra. "She may have only half the bloodline, but she is still, by a somewhat loose definition, a princess. And after everything she's been through she deserves to be at least somewhat treated as such and get a happy ever after fit for any trueborn princess." He pressed his finger back against Aqualad's chest. "Right now, I trust that you will treat my sister properly, be a gentleman, and really truly love her with every inch of your mind, heart, and soul. But I'm warning you now; you break my sister's heart," he leaned his face even closer to Aqualad's his eyes now narrowed, "and I promise you right now, by the roots of the mightiest mountain in Markovia, you will regret it deeply; and I do mean _deeply_."

Aqualad gulped, now clearly quite unnerved by just how seriously Geo-Force was taking his role as Terra's protective big brother. "Understood."

"Good." Geo-Force positioned both of his hands on Aqualad's shoulders, and straightened up, a smile now on his face instead of the narrow eyed and stern look that had been there not too long ago. "Right now, I am more than happy to trust you with my sister's heart, and I sincerely hope that I will never have any reason to regret having such trust in you."

Geo-Force turned away from Aqualad, facing the horizon once more. "And now, I must go." He summoned a flying rock from directly under his feet and started hovering himself up and towards the horizon. He stopped, and turned around so that he was facing the Titans and his sister. "Once again, farewell for now. Someday I shall hopefully return under more pleasant terms. And Tara," he smiled warmly. "I've already said this more than enough times, but it truly has been the sweetest of pleasures to see you again." He made a military salute gesture towards his sister. "Farewell." And with that, the elder geomancer turned back around, set his transport out of parking mode, and slowly hovered off over the horizon and out of sight.

For what seemed like an eternity, Terra and the Titans continued watching the horizon in the direction that Geo-Force had departed. Terra, in particular, had a mixture of happiness and sadness in her eyes, knowing that her brother had now been parted from her once more, yet also happy that she'd gotten to see him again for as long as she'd recently had, as well as hopeful that this wouldn't be the last time she'd see him in her life.

Terra was soon jolted out of her reverie and thoughts when she heard Robin say, "Well guys, I guess it's probably going to soon be about time for us to part ways as well." Terra turned her head just in time to see that both the founding division and the local Steel City division of the Titans had turned so that they were facing each other. "Bumblebee," said Robin. "I trust that you guys will still be able to keep things in order over the next few days without me and the other founders present?"

Bumblebee nodded, a confident smirk on her face. "Don't you worry Robin," said the fearless leader of Titans East. "My pals and I got this."

"That's my girl," said Cyborg, his right thumb raised in a gesture of approval.

Robin chuckled, a small smirk of his own coming on his face. "So you do."

"I guess I'd best get ready to leave then," said Terra. She sighed, and hung her head, knowing that this would eventually happen, yet at the same time now feeling quite reluctant to go through with it after everything that had happened.

"What do you mean?"

Terra looked back up at Robin, her eyebrow now raised and looking just as much confused as Robin currently appeared to look. "The mission's over," said Terra. "And that being said, I do believe I now need to return to Jump City with you guys. I mean for starters, there is the matter of my having an apartment I live in there, and there's school to come next month, and my job at that diner. And even if I didn't have those things to worry about, I'm probably now worthy of becoming a Titan again, and thus find it only appropriate to live back with you guys again?"

The two groups of the same team looked each other in the eyes, then back at Terra, then back at each other again. "I think now's about a good time to tell her," said Bumblebee.

Terra raised her eyebrow once more. "Tell me what?" she asked.

All ten of the official Titans turned to face her. "Over the past few days," said Robin. "During moments in which you were spending time with Geo-Force or likewise occupied without us around, we've all talked and discussed about your future with us and how it should best unfold after all that's happened." He looked back towards the horizon where Geo-Force had departed. "And a couple times, we also discussed this same matter with your brother." He looked back at Terra. "And in the end, we've made our decision, and it's unanimous." The Boy Wonder took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "You won't be coming back to Jump City with us."

Terra's eyes widened. "What?!" she yelled. "Oh come on! You've gotta kidding me! I thought we were past this!" She looked at Aqualad, and then at Robin. "Come on Robin, don't tell me I haven't earned the right to become a Titan again!"

Robin placed his hand on Terra's shoulder before she could continue, a small smile now on his face. "Relax Terra," said the Boy Wonder before Terra could say anything. "I didn't say you wouldn't be rejoining the Titans; I just said you wouldn't be coming back to Jump City with us."

Terra raised her eyebrow once again. "What do you mean?"

Robin's smile widened, and he turned his head to look at Bumblebee. The winged metahuman nodded her head, and directed her gaze towards Terra, a smile on her face. "Like Boy Wonder said, our decision was unanimous." She folded her arms across her chest, smile still on her face. "And we've decided, that not only are you officially a Titan once more, but you shall also be an active official member of Titans East."

Terra gaped at Bumblebee and the other members of Titans East, eyes wide and her jaw dropped open, completely stunned speechless. Then the full import of what Bumblebee had said hit her, and her shocked expression morphed very clearly into an absolutely radiant glowing smile of joy. "I . . . I . . . thanks," said Terra. Then she looked back at the Jump City Titans, and then back at Titans East. "But what about. . .?"

"No need to worry," said Cyborg. He folded his arms across his chest, smiling as he did so. "We may not be held at politician or civilian celebrity level high regard all the time in Jump City, but we still hold some degree of influence. And to make a long story short, we talked things out with your boss at the diner, the superintendent and other high level faculty at Murakami high, and the landlord for the apartment you lived in. And needless to say, you're all set and free to go now, and thus you've got nothing to stop you from moving in and living here as a bona fide member of Titans East." His grin widened. "Not to mention, your boyfriend can now rest easy without having to worry about that surfer dude he crashed into back at Jump City beach last week attempting to sweep you away."

Aqualad directed a deadpan withering glare at Cyborg. "Dude," he said. "Not funny."

"Dude!" said Beast Boy towards Aqualad. "You just stole my catchphrase!"

All the other Titans found themselves chuckling. Even Aqualad and Terra found small smirks of amusement coming on their faces.

Then Terra's eyes widened as she thought of one other thing. "You're absolutely sure Beast Boy's ok with that?"

"No need to worry about that Terra," said Raven, a small smile of her own on her face. "Like we've made clear twice now, the decision was unanimous. In fact," she turned her head to face the shapeshifter. "It was actually Beast Boy's idea for you to join Titans East in the first place."

Terra's eyes widened, completely stunned at this revelation. She turned her head to look at Beast Boy, who smiled, and then nodded, silently confirming that Raven was telling the truth.

Terra gasped in shock and joy, her eyes widened and on the verge of joyous tears, and she ran over towards Beast Boy before then glomping him with a tight hug. "Thank you," said Terra, her eyes closed as happy tears started to slowly trickle down her face. "Thank you so much; I'm not sure how I can repay you."

Beast Boy chuckled, gave Terra a hug of his own, and then allowed himself and Terra to break the embrace so they could properly look each other in the face. The changeling placed his left hand on Terra's right shoulder. "You're welcome Terra, but no further action is needed to show your thanks. Believe me Terra, after all you've been through, you've more than earned the right to a happy ending. And if you're being a member of Titans East and having Aqualad as your boyfriend is what it takes to get that happy ending, then so be it."

Then the shapeshifter's eyes briefly narrowed. "That being said," he turned to face Raven. "Raven," said Beast Boy. "I'm thinking of an animal. If it's at all possible, could you please look into my mind and telepathically broadcast the image of this animal into Aqualad's head?"

Raven raised her eyebrow, clearly confused. Everyone else looked likewise confused. "Why?"

"Just do it," said Beast Boy. Then he winced. "Please," he then added sheepishly.

Raven kept her eyebrow raised, but then eventually decided to humor the changeling, and she extended her hand towards him, her eyes glowing solid purple. Then she turned so that the hand she'd extended towards Beast Boy was now pointing in Aqualad's direction.

A few seconds later, Aqualad's eyes widened, clearly having received the mental image Beast Boy had asked Raven to send him. "Yikes," the Atlantean gulped. He shook his head side to side as if trying to clear his thoughts of the apparently quite nerve wracking image. "I must admit; I didn't think it physically possible for a great white shark to reach that kind of size."

"Well for one," said Beast Boy, "it's not a great white." He folded his arms across his chest. "It's a megalodon."

The shapeshifter pointed his finger at Aqualad. "A prehistoric shark so big and powerful that it was capable of hunting and feeding upon fully grown prehistoric whales. Went extinct approximately 2.6 million years ago." He leaned his head towards Aqualad, his green eyes now narrowing even further, and his finger still pointing towards him. "And this may seem redundant, but after how much I've failed in her regard three years ago, I deserve to make it up to her with this."

Beast Boy took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "You'd better treat her right Aqualad," said Beast Boy. "I mean it pal. She loves you Aqualad. And in return, you'd better love her like you mean it. You hear me? You'd better be just as good of a man to her as. . ." he paused, his eyes widening as he seemingly realized something. "Actually scratch that, you'd better be an even _better_ man to her then I ever was." The shapeshifter took a deep breath, and then exhaled. "Things head south between you and her, and you're still alive and unharmed when Geo-Force is finished with you . . . then I promise that I will personally bring the megalodon back from extinction just long enough to finish the job."

For what seemed like quite a long time, dead silence permeated the atmosphere amongst the 11 young heroes. Then Aqualad gulped, and he nodded his head. "Understood Beast Boy. And fear not, I promised to Geo-Force that I'd be a good man for his sister, and I shall gladly promise the same to you."

"Good." Beast Boy nodded his head with his eyes closed, then looked back at the Atlantean with his eyes open and a smile on his face. "Good luck."

He turned to Terra, who shook her head side to side with a bemused look on her face. "You didn't have to do that Beast Boy."

Beast Boy shook his head. "I know. I'm just nice like that." He placed his hand back on her shoulder. "Why? Because I may not be in love with you like I once thought I was anymore, but you are still my friend. Yes, you heard correctly; my friend. All that stuff I said to you back in that clearing the other day? Forget that I ever said any of it. You _are_ the Terra I knew. You _are_ my friend. And I am proud to refer to you as such. And nothing will change that this time. Nothing."

Terra smiled, her eyes once again on the verge of joyous tears, and then she hugged Beast Boy once more, the changeling simultaneously returning the gesture. "Thank you Beast Boy," said Terra.

"You're welcome," said Beast Boy. The two friends let go of each other, and Beast Boy directed a toothy grin at the blonde geomancer. "He may be still a teen like the rest of us, but Aqualad's a good man." He winked. "Don't let him get away."

Terra nodded, a smile on her face. "Have no fear Beast Boy. I won't." At that, she turned around and confidently walked on over to where Bumblebee and the other members of Titans East were positioned. All five of them, especially Aqualad and Bumblebee smiled as their brand new member came up to join their ranks.

"So, I guess now you have every right to refer to me as boss," said Bumblebee.

Terra chuckled. "Yes mam."

"Nice to know we understand each other," said Bumblebee. She gestured to the area to Aqualad's left. "Go on ahead girl. You're one of us now."

Terra smiled, and nodded her head. "Gladly." She walked up and took position happily next to Aqualad, smile still on her face, and her blue eyes gleaming with happiness. "I'm ready."

"And so are we," said Robin. He turned his head to face his four direct team mates. "Get ready guys. It's time we got everything ready and head home." The other four founding Titans nodded, and the Boy Wonder turned his head to face Titans East once more. "Well guys, this is goodbye for now. With luck, it shouldn't be too long before we see each other face to face once again."

"You got it Robin," said Bumblebee.

"Indeed," said Aqualad. He grinned. "Heck, when we've got the time, we'll even see what we can do to help your friends out in their little side project." Terra nodded in agreement with her Atlantean boyfriend, a confident smile on her face.

Robin smiled. "That would be perfect." Then he looked at Speedy. "And speaking of research, I trust that you will keep me informed of what our unexpected new ally informs you of in her work as our brand new spy as needed?"

Speedy nodded, giving his fellow former sidekick a thumbs up. "Don't you worry Robin," said the archer. "I've got that covered."

"Good." Robin turned to face his four fellow founders. "Come on team. It's time for us to head home."

. . . . .

Moments later, the distinctive orange T-Ship of the Teen Titans founding branch zoomed off into the horizon, but in a quite different direction from Geo-Force. And as the iconic dual air and sea transport vehicle flew off into the distance, Titans East, complete with their new member, remained standing on the shore in front of their tower, watching their friends depart.

Terra sighed, a sentimental look now on her face. "I miss them already."

Aqualad placed his left hand on her right shoulder, and the blonde half Markovian turned her head to look her boyfriend in the eyes. The Atlantean nodded, and set his dark eyes gazing intently into Terra's blue ones. "I miss them too Terra. We all will miss them." He looked back in the direction that the Titans West ship was heading. "But while this may be goodbye for now, it's not goodbye forever. Sooner or later, we'll join up together with them again. All of us will, and I do mean all of us." He looked back at Terra, the other founding members of Titans East doing the same. "And believe me, with all the people we've got among the Titans in all of our other currently existing divisions alongside us and our founders, you'll have plenty of friends to keep you company and give you the friendship and love you deserve. And trust me, in the days to come, your life will have plenty of reason for you to be happy. And after all that's happened to you before now, just like Beast Boy and your brother made crystal clear, you deserve no less than the absolute best of happiness. And that, by Poseidon's honor, is what you are going to get."

"You got that right," said Bumblebee.

"Damn straight," said Speedy.

"Amen," said Mas.

"Citado por la verdad," Menos agreed.

Terra smiled, unable to say anything to properly convey her gratitude and joy at what her new team mates were saying and the support they were giving her. She closed her eyes, nodded her head, and sighed in content. Then she opened her eyes and looked them all in the eyes, then back at Aqualad. After all that happened in her life before now, and against all the odds that had reared their ugly heads in her way, she had risen above it all and had finally earned the happy life that she'd wanted for so long. Her smile widened. As of now, she now had an entire life filled with joy, friendship, and love ahead of her. And she was going to live it to the fullest, even if she had to fight tooth and nail for it. And that, was a promise she didn't need to swear upon the roots of the mightiest mountain in Markovia in order to guarantee that she'd fulfill it. Not at all.

 **The End**

 **And just like that, the second episode of my personal fanfiction take on a Teen Titans season 6 comes to an end. And with all that in mind, here's me eagerly hoping once again that you all enjoyed this final chapter for this particular episode just as much as you enjoyed all the other chapters that came before this one, and that you enjoyed this episode just as much as you enjoyed the previous episode, Night of the Cursed (in the event that you 'watched'/read that 'episode'/story before you started on this one. And that being said, I also hope that you leave plenty of feedback. And again, much like with the last few chapters of this episode, it is mandatory that I receive an exact minimum of ONE review for this epilogue before I finish cooking up the prologue for the next episode in this season. No reviews for this chapter? No 3rd episode for the A-LionGleek Teen Titans season 3. Simple as that. Again, hope you enjoyed and leave plenty of feedback. Tata for now!**

 **Next up on Teen Titans Season 6: Valentine's Day is fast approaching, and all the Titans are quite eager to celebrate. All that is . . . except for Raven, who once again seemingly doesn't have anyone to truly appreciate and celebrate the holiday with. But before long, soon even she finds someone to fit the bill just in time. But in spite of the apparent appropriateness and compatibility for Raven that this person seems to exhibit, Beast Boy has some words of his own to say about this arrangement . . . and they are not nice. And in the process, Beast Boy, the other titans, and presumably one or two readers/viewers find themselves having to consider a very interesting question. Just how does Beast Boy actually feel in regard to Raven? Find out on the next episode, of Teen Titans.**


End file.
